Track Premiere: Witching – ‘Incendium’

photo: Gene Smirnov

Philly-based extreme metal act Witching have spent the last six years building a reputation up and down the East Coast and other regions of the United States (and will soon spread their wings to Europe). Their second full-length, Incendium, is due for an October 27 release on Translation Loss Records and expands on the sound they established on first album Vernal, fusing sludge, black and post-metal into an extreme-but-melodic mix.

To go with the album’s announcement, Decibel is happy to share the title track to Incendium right now. The song features a staccato, headbangable riff reminiscent of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal and an impassioned performance from vocalist Jacqui Powell.

“For years I was fixated on self-destruction – both physically and mentally,” says Powell. “Our first album said: ‘Hey, this happened to me.’ Incendium is about saying goodbye to the person that I used to be. I am trying to kill the patterns I’ve developed that enable me to choose a path I don’t want to be on. It feels like saying goodbye to a friend – but that friend is actually myself. I don’t want to celebrate sadness and trauma. That’s what this record is about… Recognizing, validating and grieving whatever sad shit happened, but celebrating that it is strong and powerful to own and confront things. You have to fight for yourself. You can’t let other people do it for you.”

Incendium is Latin for fire, heat, passion or vehemence,” adds guitarist Nate Zagrimanis. “I wrote the music while going through massive reflection and inner change. It was a painful but necessary step in my life, forcing me to cast aside the less obvious things holding me back from unfolding my true self. It’s the concept of a refinement by fire, burning off impurities to get to the gold. We’re no longer quieting the pendulum, we are disrupting it.”

Listen to “Incendium” below.