
ABOUT
Witchskull blend NWOBHM laced traditional doom with the aggression that you would expect a 3-piece Australian band to deliver. This energy, coupled with an authentic insight into the occult to create mesmerising lyrics, has won the band plenty of interest worldwide.
The story essentially began in 2015 with the band intending to record a demo at Melbourne’s Goatsound Studios with Jason Fuller (Blood Duster), and ended up recording 8 songs that became their debut album The Vast Electric Dark…In just 3 days.
With no expectations the album went on to top the storied Doom Charts, received an incredible boutique vinyl release through America’s STB label, and received a worldwide release through Ripple Music to a slew of album of the year nods and rapturous reviews.
Buoyed by this response, the band considerably upped the ante for their second album, Coven’s Will.
Travelling to New York’s Studio G in Brooklyn with one of doom metal’s best producer/engineers Billy Anderson (Sleep, Eyehategod, Cathedral), and their 'right hand man' Jason Fuller, the band set out to make the album they always wanted. Live to tape, no click tracks and most tracks captured in one take. The results speak for themselves. Pure, in-your-face, no frills traditional doom metal delivered with primal aggression.
At the end of the recording process, Witchskull made its international live debut headlining New York’s famed St Vitus Bar.
Coven’s Will struck a chord with several international labels, but once an offer from Lee Dorrian’s revered Rise Above Records arrived, the choice was simple.
The album was released in June 2018 and received overwhelmingly positive reviews, including a full page spread in the universally acclaimed metal bible ‘Metal Hammer’.
Witchskull unleashed videos for both ‘Raven’ and ‘Breathing Blue Light’ from Coven’s Will.
The following 18 months were spent touring Australia and New Zealand and writing the follow up for Coven’s Will. It was decided that the northern hemisphere was going to have to wait a little longer to witness the band live.
Late 2019 saw Witchskull enter the studio to record their 3rd (second for Rise Above Records) offering, titled A Driftwood Cross due out 24 April 2020. The new video for ‘This Silent Place’ has just been released. There is little doubt that this record will deliver the goods on every level. The stars have aligned and Witchskull are set to leave a significant scar upon the earth!
NEWS
1 December 2020
JUST ANNOUNCED! Witchskull will be “Live at the White Eagle” in February 2021. We promise to deliver something a little different, reminiscent of gigs back in the 1980’s and ‘90’s. This marks our live return and first appearance at The Polish Club. The concept is to bring a full production sound system and a healthy bank of old (and new) lights to create the atmosphere of shows from back in the day. There will be a full professional film crew capturing the event with a DVD (or perhaps VHS) planned for release later in the year…This promises to be a memorable tilt of the hat to the early days and one you don’t want to miss. There are still strict capacity limitations due to Covid, so get in quick!
21 October 2020
A huge thanks to the National Live Music Awards 2020 for nominating us in the “Best Live Act” category, and eternal thanks to everyone who voted for us to achieve our win. Thank you to The Basement and Canberra Theatre Centre in Canberra & The Crowbar in Sydney for supporting live music in the most difficult of times. We have so many people to thank for their ongoing support, both personally and within the industry, and we hope to see you all as soon as we can venture further afield. We have some big things planned for early 2021.
14 October 2020
It was brilliant to get back to Sydney and play two shows at Crowbar with our good friends Sworn Sober and Lucifungus. As unusual as it is playing to a fully seated audience we’re just happy that gigs are happening in any capacity. The Crowbar crew looked after us, and the Sydney punters were as awesome as always, so thanks to all involved for helping make it a great weekend. We have no more shows booked for 2020, but hopefully things open up further in 2021 so we can get to Melbourne and beyond as soon as possible!
5 August 2020
Huge thanks to everyone who came out for our two “A Driftwood Cross” album launch shows at the Basement. It was amazing to play the new album in its entirety to our home crowd with the help of our good friends Sworn Sober and Juggernaut. We are eternally grateful to The Basement and their staff, especially Mikey, for looking after us so well. We are very lucky to have venues of this quality still operating in such difficult times. Great to have a drink with you all, and we hope to do it all again soon! Cheers.
22 June 2020
2nd Canberra Album Launch announced for Saturday 1 August. If you missed out on tickets for the 1st show, get on to this one quickly.
19 June 2020
Our first official launch show for ‘A Driftwood Cross’ has just been announced. We will be playing The Basement in Canberra on Saturday 25 July with Sworn Sober and Juggernaut. This show will be capped at 100 tickets due to ongoing restrictions. We are really looking forward to playing again so hope to see you there.
12 May 2020
NEW MERCH ALERT! Witchskull badges/pins are available on our Bandcamp site.
24 April 2020
Our third album 'A Driftwood Cross' was released today through Rise Above Records.
22 April 2020
Our new video for 'This Silent Place' is being premiered through Metal Injection
18 April 2020
We have new merch available! A killer new design by Xavier Irvine and a re-tweek of our first t-shirt design by Glenno. Merch is available on Bandcamp:
https://witchskull.bandcamp.com/merch
11 March 2020
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT - Our third album 'A Driftwood Cross' will be released on 24 April through Rise Above Records.
10 March 2020
New Zealand was as memorable for us as the last time we toured there, but this time we were able to share the experience with our good friends POTION. We finally got to play Whammy Bar in Auckland with a couple of NZ’s finest (Brackenwood Coven and Bloodnut) and we couldn’t have had a better time. We were blown away with the people and bands and were overwhelmed how many came out on a Thursday night, so thank you Auckland...Next stop Christchurch! Unfortunately, Swamp Dweller were unable to play but thankfully they suggested Snailrider to join us at the Darkroom. These guys went above and beyond to help us out and played a killer set so we can’t thank the staff, bands and punters enough for coming out and supporting these shows.
Saturday morning, we flew into Wellington and made our way to Upper Hutt for Obey the Riff. Words can’t describe how well put together this festival is and we can’t thank Nathan from Beastwars and Rebecca from Panhead Custom Ales enough for their hospitality and support. At 6pm we hit the stage and gave everything we had, then some. We were definitely riding the same wave as everyone there and played one of our most enjoyable sets thanks to the incredible support of the Wellington/Upper Hutt locals. Some incredible bands played throughout the afternoon, with a pretty varied mix of styles. It was great seeing and hanging with End Boss again while also getting the chance to meet Linen, The Schizophonics and Earth Tongue. Potion were even more sonically pounding than usual thanks to an amazing PA run by a great bunch of guys. Potion are fast becoming one of Australia’s best and seeing them at Obey the Riff was absolutely killer. Nothing could have prepared us for the Mighty Beastwars on their home turf at their own festival though! They are truly one of the best live bands we have ever seen. This was our 7th show supporting them, and the finest one we’ve witnessed. They have the ability to punish you at will by drawing you into their groove vortex, hold you until the final note, then leave you wondering what the fuck happened. They must be close to the best NZ band of all time and are 4 of the best people you could ever meet. Legends.
It’s a big ask to follow Beastwars at any time let alone at Obey the Riff, but that was the task for Uncle Acid. As expected, they delivered exactly what the punters were anticipating. They were well received and capped off a killer day. After show drinks followed with UA and the Panhead Custom Ales peeps who looked after us as only the Kiwi’s can, so a nice way to finish off another perfect day.
We took Sunday off to hang at the Newtown Festival and watch POTION one last time before heading home Monday afternoon. If you are yet to see these guys in action, you really should check them out. Most definitely one of the best bands in Oz right now. Big things await I’m sure!
NZ is an amazing country with the most chilled out awesome people you’ll ever have the good fortune to meet. Thanks to everyone that came up to us and had a drink and a chat…It was an absolute pleasure. Cheers, we will return!
17 Jan 2020
The final touches of mastering have now been completed thanks to Dav Byrne at Iridium Audio in Melbourne, and the album has been shipped to Rise Above. It is still due to be released early 2020 so with any luck you’ll all hear it sooner than later. We are really pleased with how it turned out and are eternally grateful to everyone involved who helped us achieve more than we could have hoped for. In March we are off to NZ for the Obey the Riff Fest in Wellington. Beastwars have once again invited us over and we couldn’t be happier to oblige. We also play Auckland and Christchurch with Potion which is going to be an absolute blast, so if you’re local to any of these cities we’d love to see you…Will hopefully have an exact release date for you next update, but until then, Obey the Riff!
13 Dec 2019
Back home after a huge couple of weeks in Melbourne. The inaugural Sun Burn Fest was killer and a good chance for us to road test some of the new songs leading into the recording of the new album. Some of Australia and NZ’s finest made for a hell of a night including the long-awaited return of Pod People…Can’t wait for next year. We spent 4 days at Toyland Studios tracking beds for the new album before moving to Goatsound Studios for a week to finish things off. Toyland was brilliant and engineer Adam Calaitzis helped us to capture a massive drum sound. Having Fooz producing us again helps make everything seem seamless, he really gets what we are trying to achieve and we couldn’t be happier with the results so far. Mixing is underway at Goatsound and the album will be released through Rise Above in 2020…Stay tuned for a release date soon.
24 Nov 2019
Our last show of 2019 is at the inaugural Sun Burn Fest in Melbourne on Saturday 30 November. We’ve been looking forward to this show ever since it was announced! An absolutely killer line up with some of our favourite bands and people, it’s going to be huge. We start recording the new album a couple of days after Sun Burn. It will be released in 2020 through Rise Above. We’ve been working hard on the new tunes and can’t wait to get them tracked. We’ll be playing a few of them at Sun Burn, so come and have a drink with us and give us your thoughts.
DISCOGRAPHY
A Driftwood Cross
Released through Rise Above Records
Decibel Magazine
May 2018
Australia’s Witchskull are a natural fit for Rise Above Records with their blend of classic heavy and stoner metal, as evidenced on second album Coven’s Will.
Loudwire
May 2018
Australia's Witchskull faithfully worship the sounds of heavy metal's glorious past and they've delivered yet again with their second album, Coven's Will…
Metal Hammer
August 2018
Rising from the blackened elemental ooze from which all heavy emerges, Australia’s Witchskull return with a ferocious sophomore effort that has injected a bracing shot of adrenaline into the withering arteries of psychedelic metal.
Coven's Will
Released through Rise Above Records
The Doom Charts
January 2016
Witchskull from Canberra, Australia have made an impact with their debut album The Vast Electric Dark, lodged at #1 release of 2015 on a fistful of well respected music blogs/zines year end lists.
New Noise Magazine
October 2016
Witchskull rules, and I could tell that within the first fifteen seconds of the album. It’s a hard effect to have, but when a band can capture someone that easy and that quick, there’s obviously some magic running through this Aussie trio.
Metal Hammer
October 2016
With lots of proto-metal groove and bluesy riffs their debut album is more a nod to the 70s than a hellish vision of the thrash/death scene.
The Vast Electric Dark
CD released through Ripple Music
Vinyl released through STB Records
Witchskull Promo CD
Self released
Kerrang
April 2020
…these lads know how to get heads banging, fists pumping and malevolent spirits stirring.
Metal Hammer
April 2020
It’s a rather delicious compromise between the fuzz of yester-year and the aggression of contemporary metal.
Maximum Volume Music
May 2020
Black Sabbath were formed about seven miles from where I typing this. …if there was any justice in rock n roll – their rightful heirs.
Doom Charts
This is an early Album of the Year candidate as Witchskull is carving their path with heavy rock that has a familiarness to it while crafting songs that stick in your brain that has you craving for more.
PHOTOS
VIDEOS
THIS SILENT PLACE
Director / Editor : Jeremy Belinfante
Camera Operator : Joshua Belinfante
Visual Effects : Michael Blake
Colourist : Chris Downey
Production Assistant : Michele Madden
BREATHING BLUE LIGHT
Director Richard Grainger
Cinematographer Roger Price
Projectionist Garry Foster (Cody Anderson)
RAVEN
Director Richard Grainger