HELLWITCH — Syzygial Miscreancy (review)

HELLWITCH — Syzygial Miscreancy album cover Album · 1990 · Technical Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"Syzygial Miscreancy" is the debut full-length studio album by US, Florida based death/thrash metal act Hellwitch. The album was recorded at Morrisound Studios in March 1990 and released through Wild Rags Records in December 1990. While "Syzygial Miscreancy" is a debut album, Hellwitch was already formed in 1984 and had been a vital part of the 80s extreme metal underground in Florida, releasing a couple of influential demos. Most material on "Syzygial Miscreancy" are re-recorded versions of tracks from those demos.

The music on the album is technical death/thrash metal, and while I´ll try and avoid mentioning this all the way through the review, "Syzygial Miscreancy" has a lot in common with "Piece of Time (1989)" by Atheist. The sound production is similar (guitar tone, drum sound, voice production), the technical level of playing and the vocals by Patrick Ranieri also bear a resemblence to the vocals of Kelly Shaefer. They are raw, aggressive, occasionally higher pitched and screaming, and most import of all, delivered with a fierce attitude. Hellwitch occasionally play blast beat sections though, which is not something Atheist are known to do.

"Syzygial Miscreancy" is overall a very aggressive, intense, and fast played affair that doesn´t drown in technical playing or odd progressive ideas. The technical playing is clearly a means to an end and Hellwitch focus are on raw aggression rather than flashy playing. When that is said, there are still some pretty impressive technical playing on the album.

The album features 7 tracks distributed over a 25:32 minutes long playing time, and that´s arguably a very short playing time for a full length album. The short instrumental "The Ascent" opens the album, so there are actually only 6 "regular" length tracks on the album. Wild Rags Records is a pretty underground type label though and "Syzygial Miscreancy" was also produced by the band themselves, so there might have been a money issue involved here, since the band didn´t put more material on the album. They had existed since 1984 so I assume that they had a lot more material they could have recorded and put on the album. I´ll take quality over quantity any day though and thankfully all material on the album are of high quality.

So while "Syzygial Miscreancy" isn´t an album that´s perfect in any way...or you could say it´s a bit rough around the edges/unpolished, the high energy level and intense delivery of the music elevates the tracks to great heights. The tracks are well written, and the sound production suits the raw music well, but it´s primarily an album that is carried by the fierce intensity of the performances. A 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
You´re welcome :-)
siLLy puPPy wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I really love this one. Thanks for your suggestion way back when :)

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Rot Stink Rip Death Metal
TOMBSTONER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Human Rosin Melodic Metalcore
HATE BREEDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Through The Hell Hardcore Punk
ENEMY 906
Buy this album from MMA partners
Lightmatter: Rebirth Deathcore
EARTHGAZER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Eye Of Horus (Lightmatter EP Pt. 2) Deathcore
EARTHGAZER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Agremorta - Adrocitas (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 4 days ago
Agremorta - Ploratus Umbra (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 4 days ago
Agremorta - Vertex Membrana (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 4 days ago
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR - The Temple Of Curved Space (Official Track Stream)
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR
adg211288· 5 days ago
In Sulfur - The Gate (OFFICIAL VIDEO) 2022
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 5 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed