Witchcraft

Swedish doom metal act Witchcraft surfaced near the beginning of the 2000s, merging a throwback mix of vivid psych-folk textures with weighty hard rock that recalled the earliest occult-focused recordings from Pentagram and Black Sabbath. Their self-titled debut arrived in 2004, after which the group shifted toward contemporary studio methods during the following decade; Legend (2012), Nucleus (2016), and Black Metal (2020) each folded in traces of stoner metal and somber folk.

Magnus Pelander established Witchcraft in 2000 as its vocalist and guitarist, remaining the sole unchanging member, with the initial goal of cutting one track as an homage to Pentagram’s Bobby Liebling and Roky Erickson. He enlisted guitarist John Hoyles along with brothers Ola on bass and Jens Henriksson on drums, ultimately laying down the single “No Angel or Demon,” which Primitive Arts Records issued in 2002. Heartened by the outcome, Pelander kept writing new Witchcraft songs even as his collaborators turned to separate projects.

Another twelve months elapsed before the musicians regrouped, now joined by drummer Jonas Arnesen, and began readying their first full-length album for Rise Above the next year. Captured in a basement facility stocked solely with period gear, the record conveyed a convincingly period-accurate ’70s atmosphere rooted not only in the heavy style of Black Sabbath and Pentagram but also in the psychedelic and folk-rock leanings of lesser-known bands such as Leaf Hound, Captain Beyond, and Comus. Firewood appeared in 2005 and included a version of Pentagram’s “When the Screams Come,” while the quartet delivered their third studio album, The Alchemist, in 2007. Witchcraft then signed with Nuclear Blast for Legend, their fourth release, which featured crisper production values plus the addition of guitarists Simon Solomon and Tom Jondelius alongside drummer Oscar Johansson. The second Nuclear Blast effort, Nucleus, arrived in 2016 and steered the sound toward a heavier stoner metal direction, whereas Black Metal in 2020 found Pelander and the others exploring dark, introspective folk.