LP Review: All Them Witches - Lightning At The Door

Much is said about the sophomore curse: when a band that had created such a great debut that they cannot hope to follow up on the second offering. All Them Witches either never got the memo or just don’t give a goddamn. Lightning at the Door is an absolute triumph from the Nashville band, blending spacey, stoned jamming with thundering sonic catastrophe. In a genre often bogged down with the re-hashed riffs from some forgotten resin tainted memory, All Them Witches are smart, determined and as pure as southern moonshine.

“Funereal for a Drunken Bird” lingers in the abyss for the first two minutes; flickering, dancing and, most importantly, burning into a fantastic introductory trip into their slow and brilliant world. When it finally blows out, the devilish boogie of "When God Comes Back” comes crushing into the horizon. Plodding waves of riffs pounce over the rhythmic southern drawl vocals. Blink and you could mistake the whole deal for some unheard Kings of Leon attempt at metal.

The weirdness continues on “Swallowed by the Sea” which begins like a lost Fleet Foxes song but turns into a dark, pillaging snake of a jam. Showing how Them Witches can turn off one road and start speeding down another with the change of a note. Recorded entirely live in the same room, Lightning is a look into what music may have been before big business and technology collaborated to kill the rock record; raw, ethereal and down right brilliant.

"Charles William” is a southern rock romp reminiscent of the Brought Lows bar room smokiness and the rebel yell dagger of Lynyrd Skynyrd. When you hear the words “I’m gonna raise the dead” slither out over the lingering melody, it’s hard not to believe these boys have already gone and done that.




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