Description

Black vinyl with gatefold cover

Over the past near-decade, Lancashire’s medieval metal phenomenon Wytch Hazel have been honing an uncommonly wholesome, rustic and devotional brand of timewarped hard rock that’s all their own, with 2016’s Prelude and 2018’s II: Sojourn summoning to mind fevered images of Robin Hood and his Merry Men grooving to Jethro Tull and Thin Lizzy. Yet within moments of pressing play on their third LP, III: Pentecost, the musty mystical minstrelsy takes a back seat in favour of a rich, sumptuous, anthemic late-night drivetime vibe, passionately embracing the most high-end smash-hit classic rock and metal circa its late 1970s heyday. I thought I put a lot into the second album, but this album has been an absolute obsession, stresses the band leader, Colin Hendra. Every aspect had to be as good as possible. We’ve gone back and forth, Ed was tinkering with it for months on end. Musically there are gorgeous self-professed touches of Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult, AC/DC and early Scorpions—With the soloing I was trying to go for Michael Schenker beams Colin—while the scampering headbanger I Will Not initially took a nod from Angel Witch, who Hendra was helping out on second guitar back in 2015 when the track was composed, before studio treatment made it sound a lot more Wytch Hazelly. But perhaps the most lateral comparison is to a band from the opposite spiritual realm, with Archangel an explicit homage to Swedish faux-Satanic devil cult Ghost.

Track list:
1. He Is The Fight
2. Spirit And Fire
3. I Am Redeemed
4. Archangel
5. Dry Bones
6. Sonata
7. I Will Not
8. Reap The Harvest
9. The Crown
10. Ancient Of Days