Masters of infernal metal since their inception 25 years ago, Swedish blackened thrash metal pioneers Witchery will unleash their forthcoming eighth studio album Nightside on July 22nd worldwide via Century Media Records.
This week, the band has released their new single and video for the album’s fierce opening track "Witching Hour".
Watch the video, which was directed by Martin Hultgren with post-production handled by Eduardo Hidalgo and Maciej Pieloch, below.
"Witching Hour" follows Witchery’s first single for the razor-sharp track "Popecrusher", which was previously released in an animated video clip.
"And so, the 'Witching Hour' has finally arrived…This, the opening track of the new concept album "Nightside", kicks off a story of unreal nightmares, demonic possession, inquisitional witches' trials and then dives into the really dark stuff," states Witchery mastermind and guitarist Patrik Jensen. This was a first for us to create a concept album and we are very happy with how it turned out. We worked hard at creating songs that followed the dramaturgy of the story (which was more work than we ever realized, but a challenge we accepted and overcame!). We're pretty sure that 'Popecrusher', and now 'Witching Hour', will pique your interest in hearing the full story of Nightside!"
Following 2017’s much acclaimed I Am Legion album, Nightside was recorded with the Witchery lineup consisting of Jensen (Guitars, 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.
Nightside features brief guest appearances on vocals by Jeff Walker (Carcass), as well as guest guitar leads by Hank Shermann (Mercyful Fate), Simon Johansson (Wolf) and Maciek Ofstad (Kvelertak).
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 are available, HERE.
Previously, Witchery's early catalogue was re-issued by Century Media Records in 2020 on CD, LP and digitally, finally making Restless & Dead (1998), Witchburner (EP, 1999), Dead, Hot And Ready (1999) and Symphony For The Devil (2001) available worldwide again. The re-issues are available to purchase, HERE.
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