(((O))) Interview: Necroskull from Witchsorrow

Witchsorrow have just returned with their sublime, riff heavy new album The Devil And All His Works, their first in 8 years but rest assured, it had been more than worth the wait as the quality and execution of every single track is incredible. To celebrate the release of the album, Gavin Brown caught up with Witchsorrow vocalist and guitarist Necroskull to hear all about the new record and the return of Witchsorrow as well as discussing everything from Sabbath and riffs to doom and the occult in a very insightful interview.

E&D: Your new album The Devil And All His Works has just come out. How excited are you to be back with this record? 

Necroskull: Very. The process for this has been very long for various reasons, to the point where I didn’t think we’d ever actually get it finished and recorded and be able to move onward with it. I’m so, so proud of it. I think though it was frustrating at times, the lengthy gestation meant we could let ideas percolate properly. I’m thrilled that, for me, it’s exactly what I wanted it to be. It feels like it marks the beginning of a very good new period for us.

E&D: This is your first album in 8 years, do you feel reenergised with this record? 

Necroskull: Yes. Music is an enlivening thing, and part of the reason it can be hard to do or take a long time is finding the things that really excite your soul, and bringing them to life. We’ve played some of the songs live already, and they’ve all been parts of the set I’ve looked forward to. That may be because we’ve actually got new material for the first time in eight years, but I think these songs also really set the tone and make a statement and really express something about the band as doom fanatics.

E&D: The title of the album comes from a Dennis Wheatley book. Are he and other occult others a big influence on Witchsorrow? 

Necroskull: Absolutely. Right now, Emily Witch is actually re-reading his book To The Devil A Daughter again, which she calls a “summer favourite”. We have a lot of his books – I highly recommend them to anyone looking for thrillers with a load of occult goings on written by someone who really knows the ins and outs of it. Obviously The Devil Rides out is completely classic (as is the movie with Christopher Lee, which we watch regularly) but he’s got a real trove of others: They Used Dark Forces, The Satanist, Gateway To Hell, The Irish Witch… The Devil And All His Works (the book) is essential coffee table fodder for any budding occultist or doom-head. Every house needs a history of magic and ritual and dark religious stuff in it. I spent ages trying to think of an album title, literally years, and one day I saw it on the shelf in the sitting room, as I do every single day, and it just loudly jumped out at me. It perfectly tied together everything on the album, the contradictions in some of the topics, and especially what I’d been feeling a lot, that The Devil was present in absolutely everything, that there was a force at work tripping things up all the time. At the same time, there’s something sexy and alluring about it all, as on Bacchus. The Devil fucks things up, but sinning is also a very nice time.

E&D: What books on the occult would you recommend for someone who is just becoming interested in it? 

Necroskull: It depends on what you’re looking for. The Wheatley stuff is good if you want really atmospheric horror novels with loads of magic in them. In terms of actual study of the occult, The Doctrine And Ritual Of High Magic by Eliphas Levi and Magick In Theory And Practice by Aleister Crowley. I also highly recommend The Confessions Aleister Crowley, his memoir, which is absolutely absurd in its boastfulness. It’s fantastic! I have a version from 1969 which is a beautiful edition. Looks good on the shelf with his big bald head on it as well.

E&D: Are the ominous bells that ring out the start of the albums opening track ‘Omnia Finiuntur’ and the opening riffs a tribute to the immortal Black Sabbath? 

Necroskull: All things are a tribute to Black Sabbath. But yes, there’s obviously a lot of that in there. But really, it came about because I wanted some new intro music for gigs, and thought the organs on the demo version of the track would be good. We put the bells on that so there was an intro (to the intro…), and suddenly it came into focus for the album. Putting them at the end felt natural. I’ve always wanted to have a circular thing, where a record ends as it starts. I also just find bells such a perfectly doom thing. Even on a bright summer’s day, at a wedding, I always thing church bells sound so foreboding and powerful. There’s something about that repetitive, tolling sound that sets the tone for doom perfectly.

E&D: What are your favourite ever Sabbath riffs? 

Necroskull: An absolute folly of a question, I’m afraid. Probably – probably – Black Sabbath, but on those first three albums especially, Iommi does nothing that isn’t essential. And they’re all different and stand up on their own. ‘Iron Man’ isn’t just a variation on ‘Into The Void’, or ‘War Pigs’, or ‘Sweet Leaf’. I’ve listened to those songs a million times each, and my mind still boggles every time at the sheer amount of magic there is in them.

E&D: What are some of your favourite riffs by other bands? 

Necroskull: Too many! ‘Progeny’ by Celtic Frost is genius. ‘Opaque Divinity’ by Solitude Aeturnus. ‘Serpent Eve’ by Cathedral. ‘Powerslave’ by Iron Maiden. ‘Inside The Wire’ by Bolt Thrower.

E&D: The album is of course jam packed full of riffs but also has so many monolithic grooves alongside them, was tithe album a blast to make, coming up with so many riffs and grooves? 

Necroskull: For us, the enjoyable part of creating is when you realise you’ve hit on something and it feels really powerful when you play it. This record wasn’t the easiest to get to those points, but that moment when you realise you’re there with an idea or a riff is still hugely pleasing.

E&D: What have been the biggest influences, both musically and in its outlook on this album? 

Necroskull: Our starting point whenever we do anything is the same bands like Sabbath, Electric Wizard, Cathedral, Pentagram, Vitus, Reverend Bizarre, Celtic Frost and so forth. There’s some parts where we’ve gone, ‘That’s the Akercocke bit’, ‘That’s the Killing Joke bit’, and we’ve basically followed those twists and turns and tried to work out what they are and how they fit with us. In terms of outlook, I’d say Reverend Bizarre and Procession have been big, as ever, in terms of trying to focus on the doom and realising you’re contributing to something brilliant and special. Something that was hanging over my head as we tied things up and I got my head really into the lyrics was the last album by The Cure. I’ve always quite liked them and respected them and soforth but never been a die-hard fan. But when that album came out Emily and I listened to a long interview Robert Smith did and something about it, and how much the album creates its own world, and the time when we got into it, really hit me and made me think quite deeply about some of the lyrics. They’re all covered in mystery and metaphor, but there’s some real things in there this time. Along with that, I’d say the Dune books crept in as well. I was reading all the proper Frank Herbert ones when I came to write and really had my head in those, so some of the perspectives and ideas of time and how humans pass through it made it in there as well. Albeit subconsciously. 

E&D: There seems to be a big thrash metal vibe on ‘Hades Chains’. Is thrash a big thing for Witchsorrow and what are your essential thrash albums? 

Necroskull: I’m just a metal maniac, so thrash is a big part of that, but I was never specifically a thrasher. Metallica were the first band that made me realise I liked metal when I was 10 in 1994, and I quickly discovered Megadeth and Slayer after that. I’ve always preferred the more European stuff, especially the German Big Four of Kreator, Sodom, Destruction and the mighty Tankard. There’s something about the aggression and chaos of some of those early recordings by those bands especially that I absolutely love – real darkness and sonic violence. Also, I personally wouldn’t call Celtic Frost a thrash band, necessarily, but they are an enormous inspiration. Same with Bathory and Venom. Whatever they are, I love them! I’m a big fan of stuff like Desaster, Nifelheim (and Hellbutcher!), Midnight, Deathhammer, Hellripper and such as well. As far as my essential thrash albums… Slayer – Reign In Blood, Sodom – Obsessed By Cruelty, Sabbat – History Of A Time To Come, Metallica – Master Of Puppets, Kreator – Pleasure To Kill, Tankard – Chemical Invasion, Megadeth – Rust In Peace, Voivod – Killing Technology, Possessed – Seven Churches (yes, yes, it’s actually death metal but…) And regarding ‘Hades Chains’, that came about from Emily Witch wanting a song that was all downstrokes and straight-four chug, like ‘Black Shapes Of Doom’ by Trouble. She came up with the riff, and at first I thought it sounded like Killing Joke or Grave Pleasures, then when we started playing it at rehearsal I soon realised it was a similar vibe to ‘The Saw Is The Law’ by Sodom, one of my favourite tracks by them. We changed the chorus to what it is now, which I came up with when I was thinking about ‘Seek And Destroy’ and ‘Leper Messiah’ by Metallica. A lot of people have said it reminds them of Celtic Frost, something which I’m pleased about, but must also deny – we’re nowhere near good enough for such comparison!

E&D: There is a track on the album called ‘Altar’. Who do you pray to the altar of?

Necroskull: Black Sabbath. Always.

E&D: Is the anthemic ‘In Triumph We Rot!!!’ a celebration of Witchsorrow and doom metal in general?

Necroskull: Absolutely. There’s something about doom metal, and especially playing it, that feels very special. I’m a big fan of songs like ‘Doom Over The World’ by Reverend Bizarre, and ‘The Road To The Gravegarden’ by Procession, which just revel in it all. Doom metal brings that feeling out in me whenever I hear it, and I know that’s true for a lot of other people as well. There’s something glorious about music that’s leaning towards such misery and darkness that’s actually really thrilling. I remember seeing Candlemass at Bloodstock a few years ago, and it was pure magic, and all the people in the tent who knew were going gloriously wild to it. A funereal party.

E&D: How did you get into doom in the first place?

Necroskull: When I was a kid in the mid ‘90s, bands like Cathedral and Paradise Lost were big and were in Kerrang! quite a lot. I was fascinated just reading about them. Paradise Lost were always spoken about in terms of being miserable and from Yorkshire, which had quite a romantic ring to it for me, and Cathedral were these Sabbath-worshipping stoners who occupied this world of old horror movies and witches and Planet Of The Apes and stuff. It was quite a good time to find stuff like that because stoner rock was getting pretty big, and as a 14, 15 year old, I got really into stuff like Orange Goblin, Fu Manchu, Iron Monkey, Monster Magnet, Fatso Jetson, Nebula. I remember really specifically getting into Electric Wizard. There was a recommendation thing in Kerrang! by Lee Dorrian, where he mentioned them, saying they were from Dorset, which is near us, and that “they’re they heaviest band in the world, the rumble they come out with could shake the planet apart”. I eventually found a copy of Come, My Fanatics… and put it on and was just blown away by how ungodly it sounded. It actually broke Emily Witch’s father’s stereo speaker. I loved all the American stoner stuff as well, but there was a really old British flavour to Wizard and Cathedral and early Goblin that totally got into my head. Emily Witch and I were 15 at the time. We were getting into other music at the time as well, punk and stuff, but we’d be going to school listening to Wizard and Kyuss and stuff. I remember sitting one lunchtime trying to make it all the way through Sleep’s Jerusalem (as it was then) before the bell rang! At that point, Vitus, Trouble, Pentagram, Candlemass etc was a lot harder to come by than it is now, especially if you live somewhere like we do. I remember finding Death Penalty by Witchfinder General in the local record shop when I was 16, and it was like Ahab spotting the white whale!

E&D: What are the essential doom metal albums for you? 

Necroskulll: How long have you got?

Electric Wizard – Come My Fanatics, Cathedral – Forest Of Equilibrium, Candlemass – Epicus Doomicus Metallicus / Nightfall, Solitude Aeturnus – Into The Depths Of Sorrow, Revelation – Salvation’s Answer, Pentagram – Pentagram, Saint Vitus – Die Healing / Born Too Late, Witchfinder General – Death Penalty, Procession – To Reap Heavens Apart, Pilgrim – Misery Wizard, Reverend Bizarre – In The Rectory Of The Bizarre Reverend, My Dying Bride – As The Flower Withers, The Lamp Of Thoth – Portents Omens And Dooms, Warning – Watching From A Distance, Trouble – The Skull, Paradise Lost – Draconian Times.

E&D: Serena Cherry of Svalbard/Noctule and Employed To Serve’s Sammy Urwin both guest on the album, how was the experience of working with them on the album?

Necroskull: Serena and Sammy have been friends of ours for a long time, and so the idea to invite them to come and be part of it just came from wanting to get creative with people we feel really close to, which is quite a rare thing because normally there’s a cordon sanitaire for outsiders, haha. Sammy is an unbelievable guitar player, and I really wanted a wild, shreddy solo by someone who actually knew what they were doing, rather than my more impulsive, scrappy style. I remember getting the track back from him and just being floored by what he’d done, it really makes that track what it is. I asked Serena if she wanted to do one scream, like pretty much every Dark Funeral song when it drops after the riff finishes building up and everything kicks in. We went out to a friend’s rehearsal space, which is in a shipping container out in the forest not far from where I live. It was freezing because it was the middle of winter. We used a really basic mic, and she just went for it a few times and made it really evil. It’s such a raw noise that came out of her. Again, it was just wonderful to spend time with friends getting creative and having them be part of something that’s so important to us.

E&D: Who would you love to guest on a Witchsorrow album in the future? 

Necroskull: It’d be awesome to have Paul Riedl from Blood Incantation do some organ stuff. Obviously if we could trick Tony Iommi into doing a track, that’d be the whole thing completed and we could go home and shut the door, haha!

E&D: Was the video for the track ‘Bacchus’ a fun thing to do? 

Nevroskull: It was incredible. We’d never done a video before, nor had the director, who’s an incredible film-maker. But we had the idea, everyone was on the same page, and anything anyone suggested just made everything even cooler. We ended up having to cram it all into a few hours in the day at Helgi’s bar in London before they opened in the evening, but because everyone just instinctively knew what we were aiming for it was easier than I expected. It was really incredible getting to work with Giukia, the witch, who does incredible performance art and music as Setttima. She needed absolutely no notes whatsoever. The energy she brought was absolutely brilliant, she really understood the idea of the song and the video. She was there pouring all this wine all over herself and crushing grapes and stuff, stabbing the table with a big knife. She really makes it.

E&D: You have a new member in drummer Scott ‘Doom’ Taylor, how are things working out with this new lineup? 

Necroskull: The year or so that Scott has been in the band now has been incredible. There’s been so many positive coincidences that have made it feel like we were meant to join up with him like this. It turns out he and I were born in the same hospital, which is weird because he now lives in Devon and used to live in the Midlands. He is an incredible musician, a supreme talent. The gigs we’ve done with him have all been awesome. He’s one of those people who seems to just understand music on a very special level, and playing with him really makes you feel something special.

E&D: Are you looking forward to taking the songs from The Devil And All His Works into a live arena? 

Necroskull: We’ve actually been playing a couple of them live already and they’ve been going down well. It’s really given me a different perspective on the set, as with every album, as you add in new stuff and have that leading things. We’ve not done a full headline gig with it all yet, but hopefully in time we can get an opportunity to really explore some of it live.

E&D: How did your recent show at Desertfest in London go? 

Necroskull: I couldn’t have imagined a better day. Everything felt like the universe was rearranged to go so perfectly. ‘Bacchus’ had come out the week before with the album announcement, and we had a load of messages from people saying they were excited about it all and looking forward to seeing us. I remember on the day setting up, and the room was empty because everyone was watching other stages that were on. Two minutes before show I looked out and it was rammed in there. It just felt awesome. After so much work with the album, getting Scott in, feeling like we were in some way ‘coming back’, it was really, really special to get an affirmation like that. I’m still high off it now!

E&D: What other bands blew you  away at the festival? 

Necroskull: Green Lung’s show at The Roundhouse was obviously a huge and special moment. I also really enjoyed Forlorn, Elephant Tree, Cwfen, Instar Sling (who I’d never heard of but who were totally crushing!), ZigZags, Inhuman Nature and Cult Of Occult. The Grey were awesome as well. It was a really great year.

E&D: You’re playing at ArcTanGent in August and you’ve played the likes of Roadburn and Download in the past, what are your favourite festival memories with the band? 

Necroskull: Roadburn was surreal, getting to be part of something like The Electric Acid Orgy and being invited by Electric Wizard to come and do it. We ended up sharing a dressing room with Attila from Mayhem, which was cool. In 2011 we played Sonisphere, where we were on at the same time as Metallica. They’d shut off part of the service road we were meant to take to get to our stage, so we had to figure out how to get there. I got out to go to the stage on foot and ask someone there. Turns out the whole thing was blocked off! Meanwhile, Emily Witch ended up being let into the arena in the car, and was driving across it with the hazard lights on. This is why, if you can, you need a driver and tour manager for festivals… A memory that’s just come into my head is from Stoned From The Underground in Germany in 2016. There was a Scandinavian band who had some of that godawful rotten fish in a can. They were outside, quite a way away, and it still made me feel sick. I have never turned down an offer of food so fast.

E&D: It must make you feel good that a band like Witchsorrow can play festivals as different as those just mentioned? 

Necroskull: Oh yeah. I like that we sort of work at a lot of different fests. We can do Desertfest, which is an obvious fit, but we’ve also done Incineration, which is mainly black and death metal. When we did Download, it felt great bringing this kind of music there. I really liked the idea as well that somewhere there was a spreadsheet with us on it in the same column as Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath and Rammstein. Even in doom, I think we can be something a bit different. We did a fest in Romania in 2016 that was all funeral doom, plus us. We came on and we felt like Slayer or someone by comparison!

E&D: If you could curate your own Wichsorrow Fest, who would you have playing? 

Necroskull: Solitude Aeturnus, because I am an idiot and left it too late to catch them earlier this year and now Robert Lowe is gone from the band. Windhand would be good, Lowen as well, Procession. I am obsessed with the Australian band Grave Upheaval, so I’d get them just so I can watch them. Either that, or I’d just have it as a massive British doom piss up with Famyne, Iron Void, Outback, Voidlurker, all the lads.

E&D: Outside of Witchsorrow, what has been the best festival you’ve ever been to and who played?  

Necroskull: I’ve been to about eight billion festivals, so hard to say. Wacken 2003 when Emily Witch and I were 19 was very important. We’d never been to anything like it or seen a metal crowd like that before. It was immense! That year it was Slayer, Twisted Sister, Nile, In Flames, Malevolent Creation, Carpathian Forest, Dark Funeral, whole load more. It ripped! Was Back To The Beginning a festival? That was obviously a very special occasion. That was actually the day before we went to the studio. Emily Witch and I went. I’ve never been to anything like it. The Taylor Hawkins tribute was similar, with a line up that was ‘everyone’, but this was different because Ozzy was actually there. Even now when I think about it, I get goosebumps thinking about that moment when he came on.

E&D: What cinematic form of the devil is your absolute favourite? 

Necroskull: I’m afraid I have to be very obvious here and say The Goat Of Mendes that Mocata raises in the woods in The Devil Rides Out. We have a massive movie poster with him on framed in the house. They defeat him really easily, but as a representation, he’s perfect: a mighty goat-headed colossus. It doesn’t look hokey or shit, either, he’s actually really threatening, but with that intrigue as well. He’s on the cover of Witchcult Today by Electric Wizard.

E&D: What have been your favourite records of the year so far? 

Necroskull: The new Warning is awesome. At The Gates’ album was absolutely killer. It came in very sad circumstances, but as a final expression, it’s an excellent farewell. I loved Converge’s album, there’s an Italian band I discovered recently called Midryasi’s Cult who did an album called Italian Dark Sound, which I loved. It’s doom with almost post-punk touches. I also really dug Demonic Scepter by a German band called Nuctemeron, which fans of Nifelheim, Midnight and Exciter should check out. There was also The Mother Of Darkness by the Belgian black metal band Possession, and Exhumed’s new one. I really enjoyed Advent Of Wounds by the Brazilian death metal band Fossilization, which has that really haunting death metal sound I love.

E&D: This year marks twenty years since Witchsorrow started as band, what have been the sheer highlights over the years for you? 

Necroskull: There’s been an awful lot of mad things where we’ve gone ‘How the hell has this happened?’ Playing with Electric Wizard at The Forum in London was immense, although I wish we could go back and do it again now we’ve got more of an idea of what we’re doing! Roadburn and Desertfest were similar. Every time we’ve been to Bloodstock has been amazing, especially in 2023 when we did the Main Stage. I remember getting the call and me and Emily Witch just going ‘Yeah of course but… why?’ As well as playing, there’s so much of my life that wouldn’t be as it is without this band. I’ve made a lot of great friends, got to go to places, found myself in European cities in the middle of the night with nothing but a good time to worry about. The most important thing is that Emily Witch and I have done all of it together. It’s amazing getting to go and do all this stuff, but doing it together and sharing it all and having both of us know how it is to play at Download or wherever is so special. And having an album to show for it is just the best feeling.