All Them Witches ‘Dying Surfer Meets His Maker’ Review

All Them Witches ‘Dying Surfer Meets His Maker’ Review: the Nashville group’s haunting third release marks their début on New West Records.

[rating=5]

Every once in a great while, you discover a band not easily classifiable-one that takes time to absorb-but rewards your patience in doing so.

Nashville, Tennessee’s All Them Witches are one such band, forging a sound that’s a hybrid of classic rock, psychedelia, southern metal, space rock, and something intangibly “other.”

And their New West Records début Dying Surfer Meets His Maker, expands upon the mysterious sound they’ve been crafting ever since  2012’s Mother Electricity and 2014’s Lightning At The Door.

Opening track Call Me Star is the perfect portal to the album, whose pastoral guitar arpeggios and spacey arrangements mesh perfectly with frontman Michael Park Jr’s soothing vocals (recalling vintage Pink Floyd in the process).

After allowing that song’s ethereal layers to sink in, you’re prepped for El Centro, which is a churning, nearly 9-minute brain melting opus. Its psychedelic guitar textures and ever-shifting dynamics feels like the odd but winning combo of Smashing Pumpkins, Monster Magnet and Baroness, while remaining its own quirky animal.

At their strongest, the band exist in two planes: they’re both cosmic and earthbound, clearly drawing upon their rural roots, while allowing their musical consciousness to take flight in the astral plane.

Dirt Preachers is a prime example of when those polarities conjoin, kicking off with a searing garage rock rave-up (augmenting Park’s enigmatic lyrics: I weave myself into the needle’s eye/ with all you weak-willed creatures/ I make my bed across the lion’s teeth tonight/ come all you queers and their preachers) before subsiding with an ethereal hazy guitar solo.

It’s that tranquil yet disquieting feel that the album most resides in:  quiet, exploratory songs, which befits the band’s recording process: Dying Surfer was crafted in a remote Tennessee cabin-and that sense of isolation amongst nature is felt throughout.

Take the ambient, acoustic instrumental Mellowing, which features Ben McLeod’s lovely intricate guitar figures that gracefully intertwine-meeting somewhere in-between Mogwai and Led Zeppelin.

Open Passageways, the album’s strongest track, is also the most emotive, blending wistful guitar melody alongside Allan Van Cleave’s mournful keyboards, augmenting Park’s pained refrain: chew up your love then swallow.

He recounted in the band’s press release that the song was culled from memories of living in isolation in rural Louisiana: I didn’t have any money, there’s one heater in the place, it was freezing in the middle of the winter..Everything broke and I was out there for four months and lost my mind. That emotional resonance is palpable, making for a true album standout.

Dying Surfer Meets His Maker offers an aural journey well worth taking: both harrowing and rejuvenating in equal measure, it makes for one of the most unique and memorable albums of 2015.

You can own Dying Surfer Meets His Maker via Amazon and iTunes below. And be sure to check out their Fall Tour Dates at the bottom of the post.

Tour dates (most with The Sword, some with both The Sword and Kadavar):
October 27 Seattle, WA Neumo’s *
October 28 Vancouver, BC The Rickshaw *
October 29 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom *
October 30 Boise, ID Neurolux ***
October 31 Salt Lake City, UT Club Sound ***
November 2 Denver, CO Gothic Theatre ***
November 3 Albuquerque, NM Launchpad ***
November 4 Lubbock, TX Jake’s Backroom
November 7 Nashville, TN 3rd & Lindsley
November 8 Nashville, TN 3rd & Lindsley
November 28 Atlanta, GA The Earl
November 29 Winston, Salem, NC Garage
November 30 Carrboro, NC Cat’s Cradle (back room)
December 1 Charlottesville, VA Southern
December 2 Washington, DC Black Cat (backstage)
December 3 Philadelphia, PA Boot & Saddle
December 4 Brooklyn, NY Rough Trade
December 5 Boston, MA Great Scott
December 6 Ithaca, NY The Haunt
December 8 Montreal, QC Le Ritz
December 9 Toronto, ON Garrison
December 10 Buffalo, NY Studio at Waiting Room
December 11 Cleveland, OH Beachland Tavern
December 12 Rochester, NY Bug Jar
December 13 Pittsburgh, PA Brillobox
December 15 Detroit, MI Marble Bar
December 16 Columbus, OH Ace of Cups
December 17 Grand Rapids, MI Founders
December 18 Milwaukee, WI Cactus Club
December 19 St. Paul, MN Turf Club
December 20 Indianapolis, IN Hi-Fi

* – w/Kadavar & The Sword
** – w/Kadavar & The Shrine
*** – w/The Sword