Just in time for Halloween, here’s a haunting blast of buzzing industrial noise and deathrock courtesy of Athens’ Vincas. Recorded at the Gypsy Farm for last week’s “A Southern Gothic” streaming event, “The Witch” shows the group at their rumbling, tightly-coiled best. Drummer Tim Payne leads the charge, his battering ram beats cutting an imposing path for Scott Kviklys and Gene Woolfolk’s skin-grafting guitars. Tying it all together in a bleak black bow is bassist/vocalist Chris McNeal, whose deadpan salvos add a grim intensity to the performance. The whole thing is bruising and icy and menacing; in other words, it’s the perfect dark accompaniment to this most witchiest of days.
Consider it also a reminder of what we’re missing. The group’s thrilling new record PHANTASMA suffered the unfortunate fate of arriving just ahead of the pandemic. It wasn’t long before any thought of live music vanished in a vapor cloud of positive cases followed by an ongoing refusal to do what’s necessary to safely reopen. With the shuttering of Athens’ beloved Caledonia Lounge announced earlier this week—another casualty to add to an ever-expanding list of scene-devastating closures—you can only shudder at how many such performances are being erased from the future. At its peaks, “The Witch” is caustic and commanding, an alarming mirror to the nightmare already at hand.
Watch/listen above.
PHANTASMA is available now on vinyl, CD, and digital via Learning Curve Records.
More Info
Bandcamp: vincas.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @vincasmusic
Instagram: @vincasband
Twitter: @vincasband