Amplified is a weekly column focusing on new and emerging artists. Got a band that fits the bill? Email amplified@metalinsider.net.
Wow. Killing it out there, Amplified submissions. I never have the time in my day to just do one thing at a time, but Canada’s Witch of the Waste made me drop absolutely everything else and take in its grindy, mathy masterpiece, Made of Teeth. I’m about to hit replay for round 4. That’s basically the review, but read on if you really need more convincing.
Made of Teeth very clearly wears its mathy, prog influences, but in a way that’s engaging; it’s incredibly easy to miss the point of a band like Dillinger Escape Plan when drawing influences and zero in on the calculated, music-as-a-doctoral-thesis side of the style and completely lose the plot when it comes to maintaining any kind of visceral edge. The overt black metal progressions and occasional traditionally headbangable grooves here are what sets Witch of the Waste apart.
Don’t take the black metal part too close to heart, though; It’s produced well enough that all of its nuances can be heard clearly, but only well enough so that it doesn’t sound like it was recorded in a barn, on an elaborate series of potatoes. Witch of the Waste plays it fast and loose – it’s hard to tell if any given moment of mayhem on the record was plotted out by bedroom guitar heroes thinking way too hard about it, or a bunch of sloppy, drunk punks who actually bothered to learn how to play their instruments. There are brief moments of melancholic, post-rock melodies scattered here and there, like on closer “I Bet You’re Wondering What I’m Doing With This Here Gas Can,” but it never lingers very long; those are the fleeting seconds where your head breaks the surface of the water, before a discordant riff or sputtery blast beat drags you back under. It’s a pretty relentless listen, and the 15 minute runtime just flies by.
This is the kind of metal that feels like it reached inside of you and started pulling things out at random when it comes to a weird sense of emotional heft. That’s a rare thing to come by, and as such I can’t recommend it enough. Stream Made of Teeth below, buy it on Bandcamp, know that I’m out there judging the living shit out of you if you don’t. Listen to this band or die.
