Black Witchery

The American black metal scene, as has been mentioned before, got off to a slower start than many other countries' scenes. The 1980s saw some important advancements by bands like Goatlord and NME, and by the early 1990s, groups like Von, Profanatica, and Demoncy were helping the style evolve, but nothing as fruitful as the Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, or Greek scenes took hold for several years.

Instead, bands were few and far between for several years in the nineties, and a lot of these bands confined their activity to the underground. One such band was black/death band IRREVERENT, from Florida. Forming in 1990, they intially started out as a band interested primarily in covering old-school black metal bands like Hellhammer and Bathory.

"Crush the Messiah" is one of Irreverent's songs from an old demo

After a couple of years as Irreverent, the band kind of ran out of steam and essentially broke up. From the ashes of this band arose WITCHERY. Their style was darker, heavier, more aggressive. By the time Witchery formed in the mid-nineties, the American black metal scene was in full swing, but Witchery was playing in a style not well-represented in the black metal mainstream. The Norwegian template laid down by Mayhem, Darkthrone, and Burzum on the one hand and the eerie symphonic stylings of Emperor, Cradle of Filth, and Dimmu Borgir on the other were the two dominant modes of making black metal, but Witchery's sound resembled an Americanized version of Blasphemy-style war metal.

Witchery's 1998 demo Evil Shall Prevail gives us "Dominion of Everlasting Darkness"

Witchery's demo material from the mid-nineties was well-received in the underground, but member Darkwulf eventually left the band due to his disgust with the direction the USBM scene was taking. Main man Impurath then recruited Tregenda and Vaz to round out the band. With this change, their music got even darker and more hellish. It was also around this time that the Swedish retro-thrash band Witchery was starting to get really big on the international metal scene, so Impurath and company decided to change their name. Thus, BLACK WITCHERY was born in 1998.

After 8 years of laboring in the American black metal underground, this band--under the moniker Black Witchery--was finally able to start putting out proper studio releases. Their first such release was 1998's Summoning of the Infernal Legions 7" on Dark Horizon Records. It featured new versions of old Witchery classics. However, I would say that the release that really dragged Black Witchery from the underground into the light (so to speak) was their split album with Canadian war metallers Conqueror. This album--entitled Hellstorm of Evil Vengeance--is a savage black metal masterpiece, and perhaps my favorite black metal split of all time.

From the split with Conqueror, this is "Unholy Vengeance of War"

With these releases, Black Witchery was now becoming known as one of USBM's more crucial bands. Their style of war metal was still not incredibly common in the American scene, so this made them even more of a curious anomaly. Nevertheless, they have remained a consistent source of black metal intensity since their re-branding as Black Witchery in 1998. Studio albums such as 2001's Desecration of the Holy Kingdom and 2005's Upheaval of Satanic Might showcase this brutal, unapologetic style.

"Command of the Iron Baphomet" comes from Desecration of the Holy Kingdom

2005's Upheaval of Satanic Might gives us "Darkness Attack"

Impurath, the mastermind and main driving force behind Black Witchery

Select Discography:

as Irreverent:

Inverted Crucifixion (demo) (1991)

Crush the Messiah (demo) (1992)

as Witchery:

Death to Trends (demo) (1997)

Evil Shall Prevail (demo) (1998)

as Black Witchery:

Summoning of the Infernal Legions EP (1998)

Hellstorm of Evil Vengeance (split with Conqueror) (1999)

Desecration of the Holy Kingdom (full-length album) (2001)

Upheaval of Satanic Might (full-length album) (2005)

Live Destruction Ritual (live album) (2010)

Inferno of Sacred Destruction (full-length album) (2010)

Holocaustic Death March to Humanity's Doom (split with Revenge) (2015)

Next time: UNGOD