Evildeadjay wrote:
I thought "Nucleus" was great. Weird songs on that one and worth the price of admission for the obviously Maryland-y "The Obsessed" alone.
I've been trying to think of how to respond to this without writing an essay. I liked the Witchcraft s/t a lot. They'd managed to capture lightning in a bottle, a young band with a terribly recorded first release that manages to turn that liability into an asset through sheer charm, urgency, and naked honestly. Hard to know where to take your music from there, and they struggled a bit over the course of the next couple albums to move forward as a result. Their sophomore and 3rd albums are both mixed bags for me.
Graveyard is a different story - a band with a solid, well produced debut and a shit hot live show, who followed that up with an even more explosive sophomore album. Honestly, I can't get into Lights Out, I dislike it immensely for many, many reasons that I won't bore you all with. They too had problems figuring out where to go from that impeccable second album. Innocence and Decadence was better, a return to form in some ways, though it lacked the energy and passion of those first two albums.
Witchcraft on the other hand, to me, they really found themselves with Legend, finally getting out of that retro proto-metal prison they'd build for themselves with that first release. Nucleus is also exceptional.
I know that these views and opinions aren't particularly popular ones, so I'll just say. I saw both bands live, Graveyard's first U.S. show (No it was not SXSW, they played two blocks from my house then went to SXSW with labelmates and local dudes Witch), which was amazing. I saw Witchcraft on The Alchemist tour, and they were pretty good. I preferred the Graveyard show.
I prefer Witchcraft overall at this point, as they're the band successfully taken more risks, grown more as a result, and now find themselves making truly engrossing and multi-dimensional music on Legend and Nucleus. Graveyard has staggered to a standstill, and....well, I'll always have Hisingen Blues.