HELLWITCH — Syzygial Miscreancy (review)

HELLWITCH — Syzygial Miscreancy album cover Album · 1990 · Technical Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"Syzygial Miscreancy" is the debut full-length studio album by US, Florida based death/thrash metal act Hellwitch. The album was recorded at Morrisound Studios in March 1990 and released through Wild Rags Records in December 1990. While "Syzygial Miscreancy" is a debut album, Hellwitch was already formed in 1984 and had been a vital part of the 80s extreme metal underground in Florida, releasing a couple of influential demos. Most material on "Syzygial Miscreancy" are re-recorded versions of tracks from those demos.

The music on the album is technical death/thrash metal, and while I´ll try and avoid mentioning this all the way through the review, "Syzygial Miscreancy" has a lot in common with "Piece of Time (1989)" by Atheist. The sound production is similar (guitar tone, drum sound, voice production), the technical level of playing and the vocals by Patrick Ranieri also bear a resemblence to the vocals of Kelly Shaefer. They are raw, aggressive, occasionally higher pitched and screaming, and most import of all, delivered with a fierce attitude. Hellwitch occasionally play blast beat sections though, which is not something Atheist are known to do.

"Syzygial Miscreancy" is overall a very aggressive, intense, and fast played affair that doesn´t drown in technical playing or odd progressive ideas. The technical playing is clearly a means to an end and Hellwitch focus are on raw aggression rather than flashy playing. When that is said, there are still some pretty impressive technical playing on the album.

The album features 7 tracks distributed over a 25:32 minutes long playing time, and that´s arguably a very short playing time for a full length album. The short instrumental "The Ascent" opens the album, so there are actually only 6 "regular" length tracks on the album. Wild Rags Records is a pretty underground type label though and "Syzygial Miscreancy" was also produced by the band themselves, so there might have been a money issue involved here, since the band didn´t put more material on the album. They had existed since 1984 so I assume that they had a lot more material they could have recorded and put on the album. I´ll take quality over quantity any day though and thankfully all material on the album are of high quality.

So while "Syzygial Miscreancy" isn´t an album that´s perfect in any way...or you could say it´s a bit rough around the edges/unpolished, the high energy level and intense delivery of the music elevates the tracks to great heights. The tracks are well written, and the sound production suits the raw music well, but it´s primarily an album that is carried by the fierce intensity of the performances. A 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.
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UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
You´re welcome :-)
siLLy puPPy wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I really love this one. Thanks for your suggestion way back when :)

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