Richard HolmesWytch Hazel – V: Lamentations (Bad Omen Records)
Few metal acts write diatribes against Satan.
Even fewer have featured in the UK Christian & Gospel chart.
And as for striding on stage wearing bright white, mediaeval-style tunics?
Well, it’s usually a no-no.
Wytch Hazel, though, aren’t your common or garden, Goat-worshipping, bullet-belt slinging metallers.
While Ghost have been reaping souls and selling out arenas, the Lancastrians have been carving out their own space in retro metal, crafting songs worthy of stadium-level adoration.
2020’s III: Pentecost and 2023’s IV: Sacrament cemented their status as a leader in the New Wave Of Traditional Heavy Metal, the movement shaped by bands such as Seven Sisters, Smoulder and Visigoth.
However, unlike many of their NWOTHM contemporaries, Wytch Hazel’s music has always owed more to the likes of Blue Öyster Cult, Wishbone Ash and Thin Lizzy, than, say Priest or Mercyful Fate.
And on V: Lamentations, that rich seam of proto-metal sparkles: Elements and The Demon Within are prime examples, tracks wrapped in Colin Hendra’s skilfully subtle songwriting, where the frontman’s timeless vocals swoop and soar.
Woven, meanwhile, taps into Phil Lynott’s defiant spirit, and echoes the bombast of his later work. It’s up there with Spirit and Fire and Angel Of Light as one of Wytch Hazel’s best.
Yes, Hendra admits that he’s been through a difficult time, with his health taking a downturn in recent years – and says that V comes from “a more introspective, doubting, darker place”. But like much of Wytch Hazel’s work, there’s a life-affirming vitality to Sacrament that shines through. A light in the darkness, if you will.
Maiden-esque opener I Lament is everything fans have come to love from the quartet, a gallop across the fields of ancient Albion with Hendra and Alex Haslam swinging their axes, and slicing the air with arcing duel leads.
It’s exhilarating…
…as is Run The Race, arguably the hardest cut here, and a masterclass in dexterous, dramatic metal songcraft.
But these troubadours have never needed to go full throttle to make their point, as magnificent slow burners The Citadel and Heavy Load prove.
And in concluding with Healing Power, Hendra reaches for catharsis, spiritually and sonically: it’s a fitting end to the band’s fifth chapter, yet it speaks of new beginnings.
The season of the Wytch is here.
Band photo by Elly Lucas.
