Cwfen is one of the most captivating bands to come out of Glasgow in some time. Whilst only having a two track demo for most of 2023 and a further two tracks in the latter part of 2024, the band secured stunning slots on festivals and gigs through its hard work and irresistible live performances. It took me until 2024 to figure out the name was just pronounced “coven” but even pronouncing it wrong showed how much it was appearing. Debut album Sorrows encapsulates the last 18 months of tireless endeavour and delivers in spectacular fashion.
Before I had heard Cwfen I had built up a preconception that wasn’t quite on the money. From the use of the Welsh name spelling and the striking shamanic face paint of vocalist/guitarist Agnes Alder, I had convinced myself the band would fit into a witchy doom sort of space, seemingly worshiping at the altar of a deity. It doesn’t take long to realise that Cwfen aren’t those on their knees but indeed the ringleaders. Lead single ‘Wolfsbane’ emphasised this emphatically with its call for feminist uprising, looping and swirling with the evocative vocal delivery whipping the sounds like an effervescent potion. Cwfen however, has far more than just the occult in the locker.
In fact, as I have pained myself trying to break it down I get myself in knots. At points the guitar has a soft sheen on its heavier edges and can span anything from the Chris Isaak ‘Wicked Games’ type riff in ‘Embers’, to the Simple Minds reverbing anthemic ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’ of ‘Reliks’. Yet they are also too heavy to be any of those as the echoing screams in ‘Penance’ testifies. The 90s gothic influence is also at play along with doom tinges but the thing that keeps dragging me back to the vintage rock of the 70s and 80s is with the ease of which the band creates the gripping atmospheres throughout. It made me think of Fleetwood Mac for some reason, just a unique ability to build songs of great captive quality but in a different spectrum. The songs here give Sorrows its claws in musical and lyrical hooks that sink in and reach for the mind at the most unexpected moments and I found the songs reappearing when I least expected it.
The opening run of ‘Bodies’, ‘Wolfsbane’ and ‘Reliks’ is absolutely flawless and song after song offers something different yet unified in the bands sounds and atmospheric witches cloak. Kevin Hare and the mighty James Plotkin have done an excellent job of taking the band’s soft focus, sepia tinged sound and allowing each member’s contribution to push it higher. What excites me most is that even though Sorrows is astonishing, this is only the beginning for Cwfen, the possibilities of what is yet to come is exhilarating. It will take a good deal to out do this for the debut of the year.
