Swedish blackened thrash metal pioneers, Witchery, announce their eighth studio album, Nightside, set for release worldwide on July 22 via Century Media Records.
Following 2017’s much acclaimed I Am Legion album, Nightside was recorded with the Witchery lineup consisting of Jensen (guitar, The Haunted / ex-Seance), Rickard Rimfält (guitar, Seance), Angus Norder (vocals, Nekrokraft), Victor Brandt (bass, Dimmu Borgir / ex-Entombed A.D.) - who now officially replaces longtime bassist Sharlee D’Angelo – and Chris Barkensjö (drums, LIK / ex-Kaamos).
The album was once again mixed and produced by Daniel Bergstrand (Behemoth, In Flames, etc.) and includes artwork by Andreas “Diaz” Pettersson, which can be seen below.
The first single and video for the razor-sharp track “Popecrusher” is out now. Watch the animated video clip, created by Eduardo Hidalgo & Maciej Pieloch / MPieloch.com & E2h Design Studio, below.
Witchery mastermind Jensen states about “Popecrusher”, “Setting the benchmark for the new album, 'Popecrusher' is the first foreshadowing aural assault from our new album Nightside. All the pieces fell into place with this album and we can't wait for everyone to hear the album in its entirety. Nightside is our first attempt at writing a concept album, and 'Popecrusher' is of course a part of that story. We hope you love the soul-incinerating heaviness of 'Popecrusher' as much as we do. More great things are soon to come. Do the W!"
Jensen adds, “I started to write this album without any general direction of idea in mind, but somewhere in the middle of the writing process I remembered that I've always wanted to do a concept album, so I decided to give it a shot. Little did I know that writing a concept album puts a lot more pressure on each and every song turning out great. This might seem a norm (and I guess it is in some way) but usually you write 12-14 songs and choose the songs that turned out the best after they've been mixed and mastered. Sometimes even what you thought was going to be the first song on the album gets pushed to somewhere else because another track turned out sounding more like an opening track. Also, out of those 12-14 songs you can choose to keep a few a bonus tracks. With a theme album, songs can’t swap places. The story needs to work (no one wants to do a new “The Elder”!), so the opening track really needs to hold up as an opening track etc., thus the extra pressure of "no surprises" after its all recorded. The album tells a story of demonic nightmares, unexplainable pregnancy, witch trails and an escape from the Old Country to the colonies in the west and what happens once the child is born. Guests on this album is, for starters, our permanent guest of honor Hank Shermann, but also guest solos by Maciek Ofstad of Kvelertak and Simon Johansson of Wolf (also the studio owner of SolnaStudio where we recorded the album. We also had the honor of having Jeff Walker of Carcass do guest vocals on the song "A Forest of Burning Coffins". All in all, we are very happy with how the album turned out and with again thrilled over Daniel Bergstrand's killer production…”
Nightside features brief guest appearances on vocals by Jeff Walker (Carcass, on “A Forest of Burning Coffins”, as well as guest guitar leads by Hank Shermann (Mercyful Fate, on “Left Hand March”), Simon Johansson (Wolf, on “Crucifix and Candle”) and Maciek Ofstad (Kvelertak, on “Don’t Burn the Witch”).
Nightside will be released in the following formats: jewelcase CD, 180g. vinyl LP (either as black vinyl or as limited transparent red vinyl of 500x copies via CM Distro/Mailorder) and as digital album. Pre-orders for Nightside start today and are available, here.
Nightside tracklisting:
"Witching Hour"
"Don’t Burn The Witch"
"Storm Of The Unborn"
"Er steht in Flammen"
"Popecrusher"
"Left Hand March"
"Under the Altar"
"Churchburner"
"Crucifix And Candle"
"A Forest Of Burning Coffins"
"Nightside"
"Popecrusher" video:
Witchery have also announced that they will appear on this year’s colossal Hellfest lineup in Clisson, France on Friday, June 24. Check out further details,
Witchery is:
Angus Norder (vocals)
Jensen (rhythm guitars)
Rickard Rimfält (rhythm and solo guitars)
Victor Brandt (bass guitar)
Chris Barkensjö (drums)
