Despite the retro sound, Wytch Hazel have managed to slowly but surely carve their own niche. Throughout the past decade, we have been treated with a combination of bluesy hard rock, British folk and NWOBHM guitar leads, further pushed through the heartfelt vocals and emotive lyrics that reflect Wytch Hazel’s Christian background. However, this band focuses on music first and foremost, and oh my you can feel it.
I was unsure what to expect from Wytch Hazel, because retro music can lose steam pretty quickly after a couple of releases. III: Pentecost felt like the band’s natural climax when it came to electrifying hard rock devotion. On the other hand, IV: Sacrament felt doomy, thanks to the more dramatic vocal delivery and emotive melodies that gave more spotlight to those folk influences Wytch Hazel always had. V: Lamentations doubles down on the emotional factor, and even more so on the folk elements.
Sure, the first two tracks carry some weight with their galloping riffs, but the slower, more pensive tone of songs like “The Citadel”, “Racing Forwards”, “Heavy Load”, and especially the closer “Healing Power” sit by the border of power ballad territory, and form most of the ambience of Lamentations. I might need to revisit the band’s first two albums to confirm this, but I’m pretty sure Lamentations is the Wytch Hazel album that features the largest amount of acoustic guitars, thus giving it the most folky identity of all their albums so far, with tracks like “Elements”, “The Demon Within” and again the final track being the most notorious examples of this.
This switch to folkier tunes instead of the more immediate reward I got out of their more hard rock-based albums was a risky move but I believe Wytch Hazel pulled it off well. It did take me a while to get familiar with this mellower sound, but once I gave them proper time, I found myself humming and constantly rewinding many of the choruses, especially those that felt like a nice folk song to sing while sitting by the fire one beautiful summer night. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this album because I wasn’t expecting anything new, but now I have a newfound respect for Wytch Hazel’s songwriting abilities. They took away some of the instant catchiness in order to achieve a richer sound palette. It makes me wonder if Wytch Hazel would ever be interested in getting more epic and emotional and write, say, a 10-minute long track. With Lamentations as their most ambitious album so far, I think they could create some fantastic epic tales of good against evil.
