Take equal parts Voivod (“War And Pain” era), Venom, Hellhammer and Motörhead, throw in a dash of Septic Death & NWoBHM, mix it up and you’ve got the Black/Speed/Heavy Metal/ Punk infused nastiness of one-man-band Midnight from Cleveland, Ohio. “Let There Be Witchery” is the fifth full-length album from Midnight but there have also been a plethora of EP’s and split releases over a near twenty year period. I already have several of those releases in my collection so, when this arrived in my inbox, it was a no brainer that it would get a review because I’m a fan.
In the modern musical climate, there is something for everyone with hundreds of ever more splintered genres and bands duelling over what weird instruments and influences they can include in their sound. Of course, diversity is a wonderful thing, but sometimes it’s great just to listen to something that’s so unashamedly filthy, raw & unpretentious and that’s what Midnight gives me. Listening to “Let There Be Witchery” takes me back to the day in 1982 when I bought my cassette version of Motörhead’s “Iron Fist”, the day in early 1983 when I heard Venom’s “Black Metal” for the first time or the day in 1984 when I bought my vinyl copy of Piledriver’s “Metal Inquisition” and if you hadn’t already guessed, they were bloody good days!
“Let There Be Witchery” is 10 tracks and 35 minutes of no bull-shit Rock/Metal with vocals that sound like the bastard lovechild of Lemmy & Cronos and I love it. Guitar, bass and drums are also more than adequate and it always gets to me when I stop and think that one person is playing everything! In fact this is, probably, some of the strongest material I’ve heard from Midnight and it’s awesome that Athenar, the man behind the Midnight name, keeps releasing all this material, which never seems to repeat itself, and that he does it with so much enthusiasm and passion.
If you have teenage musical memories similar to mine and love any of the bands mentioned then you need Midnight in your life. If you are younger and want to listen to a great sounding (but not too polished) cracking little album that might go some way to letting you experience what we did back in the 80’s when bands were starting to crank up the heaviness, 35-40 minutes was considered the perfect length for a release and Speed, Thrash and Death Metal were on the cusp of breaking through then “Let There Be Witchery” is it, but it’s also an album that sounds relevant and fresh in 2022!
Track List
01. Telepathic Nightmare
02. Frothing Foulness
03. In Sinful Secrecy
04. Nocturnal Molestation
05. More Torment
06. Let There Be Sodomy
07. Devil Virgin
08. Snake Obsession
09. Villainy Wretched Villainy
10. Szex Witchery
Band Members
Athenar – Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Drums
This review is solely the property of Richard Tilley and The Metal Asylum