Longevity is an underrated skill. To keep a band alive and still be making music years after breaking out is something to be valued. It takes persistence and commitment just to keep it going, let alone make a quality album. After six years without releasing new music, All Them Witches started to wind down. When their drummer unexpectedly quit, their commitment wavered. It all seemed to be coming to an end. But chance kept them going. Revitalised by the addition of new drummer Christian Powers, they set to work on a new album. Guitarist Ben McLeod, bassist/vocalist Charles Michael Parks Jr. and keyboardist Allan Van Cleave rediscovered their love of music. The result is ‘House of Mirrors’, an album heavy with experience but supercharged by the thrill of rediscovery.
The album’s cover features the four band members, blurred and dyed red; the colour of anger, love and danger. It’s a deeply fitting choice for music that feels passionate and devilish. Each of the ten songs feels like an idea expressed thoughtfully but with an air of recklessness. Compared to their previous album, 2020’s understated ‘Nothing As The Ideal’, it’s far more upbeat and creative and, because it’s almost uninterested in compromise, the tone and energy shift wildly throughout its runtime. This isn’t a bad thing as it all operates within certain parameters and styles that make the whole thing work remarkably well, despite its scope.
As their band’s name implies, the sound is a bubbling brew of folk rock, sludge and doom, with a healthy dose of blues. Each song contains a different mix of these elements and each sits somewhere between Monolord, Cave-In and the White Stripes. It’s an unusual but effective mix.
The whole record is built upon shifts in style and tone that feel both atmospheric and surprisingly effective. At their heaviest, the crushingly eerie ‘Red Rocking Chair’ uses slow, quaking riffs and spoken word to give it authority, while ‘Angel on the Wayside’ is a bluesy number with so much energy it bounds around like a puppy. At the other end of the scale, ‘Starting Line’ feels almost like a folk song until its emotional strings tighten, pulling it in a different direction entirely.
The album’s strongest feature is the way the band balance the different musical styles and the energy between them. ‘The Welterweight’ and ‘Saturn Song’ use fast, muted guitars to give them a sense of urgency and momentum but it’s a sound that sits slightly at odds with the way the songs unfold, giving them a mischievous air. Similarly, ‘Turn On The Light’ marches along on a comfortable, shrugging guitar part, right until its dynamic changes like a twisting knife.
Although the record’s greatest strength is the interplay between band members, the production work by Eddie Spear at Blackbird Studio in Nashville allows the different elements to slot together like a puzzle. It’s notable how much creative energy drummer Christian Powers brings to the album too, and the heavy booming sound gives them a strong presence, particularly on ‘Turn On The Light’. The rides (and the metallic Ting sounds) under ‘Hold Up, Say What?’ also give it a strong character. However, the record’s sound is best defined by the tangible bass and guitars, sounding grubby and lived-in as they express their ideas. Notably, ‘Culling Line’ leans back on a heavy sludge riff that allows the guitar to sing over the top and its biting, emotional tone. It’s a beautiful piece of work.
One of the album’s most compelling elements is its sequencing. Like on their previous record, the various shifts in style lend an unusual energy. After moving slowly in one direction, it shifts, giving it a strange and unpredictable quality. Track four ‘Hold Up, Say What?’ is such a straight-up noisy rock song that it arrives like a shock and feels strangely out of place despite giving the album a huge jolt of energy. Similarly, the lively ‘Angel On The Wayside’ feels as if it’s stepping in a different direction to the proceeding songs, like a kind of musical square dance. That said, the variety of styles makes it difficult to decide if there is a more effective track order. Either way, the slightly bumpy ride is part of the charm.
The album’s title tells you a lot about its themes. The idea of the self being reflective, of recursive ideas and repeated patterns. The most straightforward use of this idea is the droning blues riffs under ‘Aethernet’ or the repeating patterns of ‘Angel On The Wayside’. Both songs treat this as a basis and then break free of the patterns. It’s a striking form of expression, especially as they are using sounds honed over years of commitment.
All Them Witches are reborn on their new record. As the title suggests, ‘House Of Mirrors’ is a familiar space crammed with new ways of seeing themselves. It’s a brilliant, beguiling piece of work.
IAN KENWORTHY