Virginia probably has the most weirdly distinctive scene in all of the United States and perhaps Metal in general. While scenes such as New York and Florida have more of a common goal amongst each other, bands from Virginia take different approaches to their vastly deep musical vocabulary more than others would. Wether it a more Heavy Metal inspired path of extreme metal with the heavily underrated Deceased and the infamously controversial Arghoslent or the more progressive side of things with Morbius and even the Hardcore Punk leanings of Abominog which arguably lead to the mircoscene of Grindcore bands like Pig Destroyer, Enemy Soil and Agoraphobic Nosebleed as well the Crossover Thrash outfits like Iron Regan and Municipal Waste.
Witch-Hunt gets overlooked among all of these bands. Not only is this one of the first bands that features the extremely talented and underrepresented drummer Erik Saygena but the only EP ‘Prophecies of a Great Plague’ they put out after a series of rather solid demos is quite the enjoyable recording. While you can definitely tell in their basic Melodic Black and Death Metal is the blueprint for everything written and involved with the music here the teeth of the material lies in older more typical styles of Death Metal. The listener will experience grooves and chuggy guitar sections straight out a Deicide album shifting between Bolt Thrower-esque riffs that add to the chunkiness to said release. Even if some riffs may be taken straight out of ‘Slaughter of the Soul’ or early Melodic Death Metal releases in that vein, the arrangements and presentation of the songs translation extremely well into sounding like a band of this ilk who doesn’t just listen to old Power and Heavy Metal but enjoys the origins of when Death Metal became a spark in the mainstream.
The songs ‘Fragments’ along with ‘Conjuring the Undivine’ are rather great examples of this. The former starts off with an ominous medieval synth section before transitioning into a very Paradise Lost inspired section ala their album ‘Gothic’. The song then forms itself based around the opening into a more melancholic version of riffs you would hear off ‘Once Upon the Cross’ and even ‘War Master’. The rest of this track and the song as a whole, a great introduction for this EP will transpire itself throughout. An incredible mix of influences that takes the atmosphere of certain influences and channels it through other bands around this time. This is a band where you really can’t mistake them for another. Very versatile while having their own integral identity.
While this is a short EP, you can find roughly all of the tracks on YouTube, you can also find them on the compilation album they did in 2018. They’re even copies left on their Bandcamp for those interested. This is one recording you definitely don’t want to pass up if you’re into the more Melodic types of Extreme Metal.
