Witching Hour - Descending... Where Time Has Ceased To Exist - CD

It’s been a long, strange trip for WITCHING HOUR. Formed in 2006 in the southwest of Germany, the band’s earliest work tended toward paradigmatic blackthrash, particularly the Teutonic iteration of it. And while releases have been patiently sparse during that time, they’ve been of uniformly high quality, all leading up to 2018’s pivotal third album, …And Silent Grief Shadows the Passing Moon. Here, WITCHING HOUR staked their claim as some of thrash metal’s strongest songwriters with a narrative flow that was almost dream-like and a sound quite elevated from their humble beginnings. A career highpoint, to be sure, but silence then ensued…

So it goes with WITCHING HOUR, patience is rewarded with their long-awaited fourth album, Descending… Where Time Has Ceased to Exist. Much like its towering predecessor, Descending… comprises five epic tracks (plus instrumental intro) and, this time, exceeds the length by two minutes for a total of 44: a journey indeed awaits. In fact, the band recorded, mixed, and mastered the album at Journey into Eternity Studios, which is owned by drummer Sascha Bastian.

Ancient metal mysticism is the atmosphere that cloaks WITCHING HOUR’s fourth album like ethereal chainmail. The grit of its predecessor has been slightly shined to a rustic gleam, of sorts, as the songwriting suitably grows more diversified and complex – and, even more uniquely, possessing a paradox of density and spaciousness. As each composition winds and wends on paths that are alternately mysterious, gloomy, and triumphant, the power-trio gallop with a confidence that’s compelling to the extreme; the narrative flow is more fluid than ever, drawing the listener deeper into the all-encompassing experience. That their riffing has grown even more (gloomily) melodic and the leads burn brighter than before simply underlines the band’s traditional metal foundations, particularly that of the NWOBHM.

To summarize and say that Descending… Where Time Has Ceased to Exist marries prog-rock structures to ancient heavy metal riffing & melody and draped in the atmosphere of pioneering German thrash and earliest black metal only explains half the brilliance of WITCHING HOUR at this juncture – but it’ll perhaps encourage you to begin that journey!