Attic – Return of the Witchfinder

Attic wasn’t exactly the first band to follow the path of of King Diamond and Mercyful Fate. With the Danes spawning copcycats of varying degrees of quality ever since their pioneering albums in the 80’s, there was a particularly strong wave of bands that arose around 2010 that besides Attic also included In Solitude, Portrait, the more obscure Dracula or the earliest steps of platinum selling act Ghost. But compared to their peers there were always a few things that made Attic stand out as unique. Oviously the cunning resemblance of Meister Cagliostro’s vocals to those of King Diamond are one of them. But perhaps even more, it is the same satanic and ritualistic atmosphere that King Diamond and Mercyful Fate conjured that lives on in the sound of Attic. And while many of the other bands mostly kept their sound and fanbase in more strict Heavy Metal territories, Attic’s approach has a distinct flair of Black Metal that further sets them apart.

So with these direct and inevitable comparisons to a legendary act like King Diamond, Attic has had quite some shoes to fill. Especially after the initial promise of ‘The Invocation’, all eyes were on the follow-up concept-album ‘Sanctimonious’, which ended up lifting the band to new heights. For me personally, whenever the name of the band comes up, the title track of the previous record launches itself into my cranium. Like a catchy spell cast on me since the first day I heard it, the album has entranced me in a way that I hadn’t experienced since first hearing Mercyful Fate and King Diamond. That this authenticity doesn’t come without careful craft is evident as the band has taken a long time between recordings yet again, but seven years after ‘Sanctimonious they have finally conjured their third demon and baptised it ‘Return of the Witchfinder’.

To start off with the first of a set of conclusions, the latest Attic album is 100% in line with their previous records, and with the work that inspired the band to begin with. It’s the combination of Heavy Metal riffs alternated with some Black Metal influences and the typical awe-inspiring vocal range of Meister Cagliostro that has appealed to me from the very first moment I heard the band. Once again the band shows that the devil is in the details, and that their popularity is not just based on being to sound like Mercyful Fate or King Diamond. It is rather their gift to write compositions that fill the void left by the bands (although neither is officially inactive of course) in a most authentic way. This is not only in regards to catchy melodies and vocal acrobatics, but also in the same sinister atmosphere that the Heavy Metal giants put in their music. And much like the King, Meister isn’t just a vocalist: he’s an instrumentalist that lifts the music to new heights through the spells he conjures.

On both previous albums, Attic had kept their cracking tracks close to the start of the album, with both ‘Sanctimonious’ and ‘Funeral in the Woods’ starting off the album with the best track of the record. And even though some later songs on those album were able to get close to that quality, it is inevitable side A of these records that managed to impressed me the most. Where ‘Return of the Witchfinder’ mostly sets itself apart from the rest of the Attic back catalogue is the ability to hold on to the quality and grow as the album goes along. After a sinister violin intro transitions into a melodic riff with ominous bells, ‘Darkest Rites’ starts off the album with a catchy Heavy Metal track with all the Mercyful Fate, King Diamond, Venom and Iron maiden influences worn proudly on its sleeve. More restrained in tempo, the fury is fully unleashed in ‘Hailstorm and Tempest’, a moody track with blistering drums and gorgeous haunting riffs. The balance between the melodious lead and pummeling drums makes this one of the earliest album highlights. But the fireworks come out even further in the second half of the record. Once the title track has served us with a song straight in the spirit of Mercyful Fate, the uptempo ‘Offerings to Baalberith brings a heavy dose of melodiousness. But the catchy height of the album is reached in ‘Azrael’, a fantastic track with not only a beautiful melody, but above all a stellar vocal counterpart to the flow of that riff. Then, the galloping ‘The Baleful Baron’ paces us through to the album climax ‘Synodus Horrenda’, a song where the balance between Black Metal and Heavy Metal is applied to perfection. Furious drums, tremolo riffs and catchy Heavy Metal, it ends the record with a horrifying bang.

There’s a lot of things that could be said about ‘Return of the Witchfinder’, but all that really matters is that if you love that sound of King Diamond and Mercyful Fate as well as a good dose of Black Metal, Attic is as good as it gets in combining the two. And with their most recent album, the Germans have released their most impressive record to date, a glorious work of fist-pumping and falsetto-inducing Metal!