Witch Club Satan – why?
There surely was excitement on Women´s Day 2024 as the all-female Black Metal band Witch Club Satan was releasing their self-titled debut album. We had been at their spectacular shows and had been awestruck by the theatrical, blood-soaked and occult performances combined with a whirlwind of Black Metal music spewing their feminist agenda.
We wondered if the music could stand on its own on a full-length album sans performance. It did - it is an excellent take on the 80’s and 90’s scene: as fierce, cold, brutal, and feral as anyone in the primeval soup of Norwegian Black Metal. With their clear-cut programme, the three women have become a musical force to be reckonned with. Over a few years, they have become a phenomenon in the murky underground of Black Metal music. It looks like they have refreshed the whole scene. Quite the success these three women have had after they met at theatre school and formed the band as a performance act in 2022. And now they are full-fledged Black Metal musicians with many live shows under their belt and an astounding debut album to travel with.
The feral and relentless album opens with fierce vocals and music on ”Birth” (“I am a ball / Rolling into the world / Feeding it with children”), continues with ”Fresh Blood Fresh Pussy” and then intensifies the sonics with ”Black Metal is Krig”.
Very much an emotional song with long doomy riffs and fervent vocals is ”Steilneset”, when they evoke the brutal burning at stakes of 91 “witches” in the Northern part of Norway in 1691 (77 women, 14 men).
Among the brutal tracks, there is a beautiful breather in ”Mother Sea”, combining dreamy vocals with piano, ending with dark synth sounds. Then comes the fuzzy ”Hysteria” with blast beats ,and thundering bass - and there are five engaging more songs before the album ends with ”Mother” (“As long as I am daughter / My heart will be in your hostage / Break my heart to free it / Mother”).
Witch Club Satan will perform on Saturday, April 19!
