Release Date July 24th, 2026
Format LP
Genre Black/Thrash Metal
Origin Germany
Witching Hour emerged from Saarland, Germany, during the mid-2000s, taking the raw collision of black metal and thrash metal as their starting point. Their early releases were primitive, fast and steeped in the atmosphere of the European underground, drawing upon rasped vocals, tremolo-picked guitars and traditional thrash riffing. By the time “Where Pale Winds Take Them High” first appeared through Evil Spell Records in 2014, their writing had begun to expand beyond straightforward attacks. The lineup on this mini-album features Jan Hirtz on guitars and vocals, Sascha Bastian on drums, Marco Justinger on bass and guitars, and Phil on guitars. That four-man configuration brings several guitar layers into the songs while retaining the raw character associated with the band’s earlier material. Later Witching Hour releases would stretch toward longer compositions and deeper atmosphere, leaving this chapter positioned between the blunt violence of their beginnings and the broader direction that followed.
Reissued by Dying Victims Productions under licence from Evil Spell Records, “Where Pale Winds Take Them High” contains six compact tracks lasting around twenty-five minutes. The production is rugged and shadowed, though the individual guitar lines remain distinct enough to reveal the detail beneath the black/thrash attack. Jan Hirtz’s vocals arrive as distant, echo-soaked cries, adding an occult horror character without swallowing the riffs. The drums have a deep, heavy strike, and the bass stays closely bound to the guitars. Tracks such as “About A Curse Of A Morbid Century,” “So I’ve Chosen Death” and “From The Black Crypts Of Fullmoon” shift between rapid assaults, colder melodic lines and slower turns.
The changes provide more substance than a simple burst of speed, even when certain guitar runs circle the same ideas longer than needed. The playing has discipline, though its raw production occasionally smears detail during the faster moments. Michal Kaczkowski’s artwork complements the release’s nocturnal, occult imagery, and the vinyl edition gives this overlooked mini-album an appropriate physical return. It is a concise document of Witching Hour at a transitional stage, vicious enough to satisfy black/thrash listeners and developed enough to offer more than retro worship. The songs are short, focused and lined with sinister melody, while the imperfections preserve the underground character of the original 2014 release.
|7.5
Add comment
Comments