[Photo Credit: Sam Scott-Hunter]
Ascending British hard rock sect, WYTCH HAZEL, will release its new album, IV: Sacrament, on June 2 via Bad Omen Records. Recorded with long-time producer Ed Turner (Purson), and tracked in a converted Baptist chapel in rural Wales, the record is a resounding achievement and glittering treasure chest that builds on the momentum of the band’s celebrated 2020 album III: Pentecost, glorified by Under The Radar as “an invocation of rock and roll at its purest and, more specifically, of all that made the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the late ’70s so special” and compelled Metal Injection to opine, “WYTCH HAZEL is arguably one of the best heavy metal bands out there right now and everyone should be listening to them”.
Following the March release of IV: Sacrament‘s first single (and its accompanying video by the Brighton based production-team Wild Stag Studio) ‘Angel Of Light’ which caused Metal Injection to note, “WYTCH HAZEL has guitar harmonies for days” and was named by Classic Rock as one of its Tracks of the Week while opining, “there’s much to enjoy here regardless of your religious persuasion…think Blue Oyster Cult-meets-Thin Lizzy, with the gallop of Iron Maiden and uplifting harmonies” – WYTCH HAZEL drops a lyric video, for the new track, ‘A Thousand Years’, a stone cold rock banger featuring classically beautiful production and a ripping Neal Schon/Aldo Nova-type guitar solo.
View WYTCH HAZEL’s ‘A Thousand Years’
Led by vocalist/guitarist Colin Hendra, Wytch Hazel is a singular source of hard rock/heavy metal dominion, offering a never ending quantum of medieval melodic structures and to uplifting hymns to the Lord. The fourth WYTCH HAZEL album is overflowing with indelible earworms the likes of which must be heard to be believed. And believe, you shall.
“I’ve blown my own mind a bit,” Hendra admits. “And even after all this painstaking work, I still feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of what WYTCH HAZEL could be doing musically. I wish I could have a month to work on one song, and go on a tangent a bit. I will in the future, it’s going in the right direction. It’s some of the most honest songwriting I’ve ever done, and the lyrics come from a darker place, I think. I’m getting older, that comes through in some lyrics: ‘see my body breaking’, ‘I’m digging deeper’, ‘time’s running out…’ I struggle to see the positive a lot of the time, so the songs end up being negative, the subject matter coming from constant striving.”
It’s these deeply personal lyrics, coming from a place of faith and conviction, which make Wytch Hazel stand out further from the modern herd; although we’ve been bombarded with the cartoon diabolism of the ‘occult rock’ revival for the best part of two decades, no other band has dared to offer the other side of the story. Lest any heathen headbanger start to fear any kind of evangelical conversion agenda, Hendra expands on his position: “Music is created for all, it’s a common grace for everyone,” he affirms, “which is why the music that shows the glory of God the most, in my opinion, is not music created by Christians. It’s Black Sabbath, you know!”
To celebrate the release of IV: Sacrament WYTCH HAZEL, alongside Canadian label-mates SPELL and London proto-metal outfit PARISH will play the Boston Music Rooms in London on June 2nd.
IV: Sacrament Track-Listing:
1. The Fire’s Control
2. Angel Of Light
3. Time And Doubt
4. Strong Heart
5. Deliver Us
6. A Thousand Years
7. Gold Light
8. Endless Battle
9. Future is Gold
10. Digging Deeper