Closet Witch (USA) - Chiaroscuro (2023)

The Blast Witch Project

    I first saw Closet Witch in Dallas in 2018 and it was one of the most impressive live performances I had ever seen. What I bore witness to was a demonstration of unconditioned power and catharsis. On that tour the band was promoting their first full-length record and now, five years later, Closet Witch have followed it up with their second LP, Chiaroscuro—an appropriately titled album because Chiaroscuro is high art. 

    Closet Witch's latest is a concoction of grindcore, chaotic hardcore and screamo played with an air of melancholy and desperation. Guitarist Alex Crist sets the songs ablaze with a wall of noise and distortion that is both melodic and punishing. This creates a large atmospheric space within the album that gives you a sense of total immersion. Cory Peak's growling bass and Royce Kurth's drumming only fuels the fire. Kurth propels songs with his blast beats and stomping hardcore interludes, as well as some atypical drum fills that are understated, yet are completely in tow with the band's emotive audio environment. Mollie Piatetsky's vocals are a searing contrast of fury and despair. They cry of an exhausted longing, a burning torment, an empowered courage and a soul crushing disgust. They are a vicious seething well of feminine rage that I'm not even going to pretend to understand the depths of. 

    Chiaroscuro is a brooding grindcore masterpiece and plays a little bit as the band's swan song since they announced a hiatus simultaneously with the album's release. Closet Witch elevates noise, chaos and speed into something beautiful and ethereal. Hopefully my favorite wicked witch is not dead and the band has more to offer in the future.

FFO: Cloud Rat, Fluoride, Sacridose

Listen: https://closetwitch.bandcamp.com/album/chiaroscuro

[Originally posted on January 4, 2024, Return to the House of Grindcore]

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