Witching Hour's latest album, 'Descending… Where Time Has Ceased to Exist', is a fascinating yet disappointing release. The German black/thrash/heavy metal trio has crafted an album that, on the surface, appears to be a masterpiece. With a runtime of just 43 minutes, the album is concise and easy to listen to, with songs that build around long-form structures. However, upon closer inspection, the songwriting reveals a flaw that undermines the overall experience.
The album's strength lies in its ability to straddle the fences between black metal, heavy metal, and thrash metal. The warm and natural tones of 'Descending…' enhance these qualities, presenting a product that is easy on the ear while deadly to the spine. Songs like 'Where Time Has Ceased to Exist' and 'Profane Resurrection of a Presumed Dead' are compelling, with heavy metal swagger and epic leads. However, when unified as a whole, the album suffers from a lack of compositional dynamics and an overabundance of recycled parts.
The 11-minute closer, '…and Then Came the Flames', is a microcosm of these issues. The song feels complete and exciting at first, but as it progresses, recycled parts and pieces cheapen the experience. This mirrors the album as a whole, which is fun and entertaining in the initial throes but becomes a slog to get through in remarkably short order.
The album's flaw lies in its inability to adequately support and develop its great ideas. Instead, it drops its best work into a sea of repetitive structures and monotonous bloat, hoping that observers might discern and appreciate them. While the album contains worthy gems, they don't quite justify the expanse of fluff and drag that bog 'Descending…' down.
In another world where Witching Hour invoked a greater variety of techniques, tempos, and textures to fortify their compositions and bring reliability to excitement, this record would've been a barnburner. As it is, it never truly catches fire and leaves me wanting. Personally, I think that the album's strength lies in its ability to straddle the fences between genres, but its flaw lies in its inability to adequately develop its ideas. What makes this particularly fascinating is the clash between having great ideas and writing songs that don't adequately support or develop them. From my perspective, Witching Hour represents a missed opportunity to create a truly great album.
