BELL WITCH: Seattle Doom Metallers To Kick Off West Coast Tour With Monarch! Next Week

"...a bottomless, candlelit mausoleum within which to lose yourself, as terrifying bellows are propelled from the depths on gusts of ire, and soothed by mellifluous paeans sung by mournful acolytes. A dismally beautiful tragedy." - Team Rock

Seattle doom metallers BELL WITCH, fresh off a co-headlining tour with Primitive Man, will take to the streets again next week for a short West Coast tour with French doom metalists/labelmates Monarch! The journey will run from December 1st in Seattle, Washington through December 9th in Chico, California. Additionally, BELL WITCH will bring their devastating odes to the stages of Roadburn Festival 2018 in Tilburg, The Netherlands. The band will perform two sets, the first on Saturday April 21st at the 013 venue and Sunday, April 22nd at Het Patronaat recreating Mirror Reaper in its crushing entirety. See all confirmed dates below.

BELL WITCH will be touring in support of their breathtaking Mirror Reaper full-length, issued via Profound Lore. Engineered and mixed by veteran producer Billy Anderson (Swans, Sleep, Neurosis), the duo of Dylan Desmond (bass, vocals) and Jesse Shreibman (drums, vocals, organ), Mirror Reaper delivers one continuous, eighty-three-minute piece unfolding as a single track. Mirror Reaper, which recently earned the #11 spot of Decibel Magazine's coveted Top 40 Albums List, sees the band explore the more meditative, melancholy, and introspective aspects to their sound through the introduction of long, lonely organ passages and the return of vocalist Erik Moggridge (Aerial Ruin), offering a prominent presence.

Stream the record in full via the official Profound Lore Bandcamp page here.



Mirror Reaper is available on 2xCD, 2xLP, and digital formats. Order your copy HERE!

BELL WITCH w/ Monarch!:
12/01/2017 Highline - Seattle, WA
12/02/2017 Tonic Lounge - Portland, OR
12/03/2017 Old Nick's - Eugene, OR
12/05/2017 Blue Lamp - Sacramento, CA
12/06/2017 Golden Bull - Oakland, CA
12/07/2017 Five Star Bar - Los Angeles, CA
12/09/2017 Café Coda - Chico, CA
End Tour
4/21/2018 013 @ Roadburn - Tilburg, NL
4/22/2018 Het Patronaat @ Roadburn - Tilburg, NL

Formed by Desmond and ex-drummer/vocalist Adrian Guerra, BELL WITCH released their first self-titled demo in 2011 and partnered with Profound Lore Records for their debut album, Longing, in 2012. The duo's second LP, 2015's acclaimed Four Phantoms was recognized as one of doom metal's triumphs of the year. The band extensively toured in North America and Europe, securing notable festival appearances including Roadburn, Basilica Soundscape, Sled Island, and Psycho California.

"The title 'Mirror Reaper' is indicative of the Hermetic axiom 'As Above, So Below,' written with two sides to form one whole," notes the band of the themes surrounding the concept and lyrics of latest offering, Mirror Reaper. "The song is both its own and its reflection, as an opposite is whole only with its contrary. Our focus as a band has always been the perception of ghosts and the implied archetype of the dichotomy of life/death therein. 'Mirror Reaper' is a continuation of that concept. During the writing process we were devastated by the loss of our dear friend and former drummer, Adrian Guerra. In love and respect to his memory, we reserved an important yet brief section in the song for him that features unused vocal tracks from our last album. This specific movement serves as a conceptual turn in the piece, or point of reflection. We believe he would be proud of it as well. 'Mirror Reaper' was the first collaborative writing project with the new lineup, and Adrian's death during it brought extra emotional weight. We sought to match the complexity and weight of these events within the composition of the piece."

"Seattle doom metal duo BELL WITCH's third album sounds broken down by life and death alike, but it scrapes together something like hope." - Pitchfork

"BELL WITCH's vision of what lies beyond is filled with both rippling beauty and the looming threat of negation. Still, somehow, it's a tempting invitation." - Tiny Mix Tapes

"Mirror Reaper bleeds profusely with misery, crushed by its own incredible weight, and locks eyes with you... blankly staring you down as it slowly perishes from all existence." - Invisible Oranges

"The Seattle-based funeral doom duo don't so much write songs as build sonic ecosystems, interval by interval and frequency by frequency. As performers, the charge every gesture with dynamic impact, nuance, and a degree of psychic intensity rare even in metal." - Decibel

"To listen to an album like Mirror Reaper is to surrender to it, to let it suck you in. Listening to Mirror Reaper, I'm not thinking about genres or influences or whether I like this album more than the band's last album. I'm not really thinking anything. I'm just feeling big feelings. Mirror Reaper, as a piece of music, exists somewhere in the beyond. It's a hell of a place to visit." - Stereogum

"Knowing the backstory makes listening to Mirror Reaper even more intense, but even if you don't, it's such a powerful piece of music that you'll be able to feel that some type of major force was behind it." - BrooklynVegan

"...one of the most breath-taking releases of the year." - Ghost Cult

"...an instant classic of its genre, meticulously deconstructing funeral doom's core components and reassembling them into something that pushes further than maybe any band of their kind has pushed before, and yet possessing an emotive heart and spirit so powerful and affecting that it feels the furthest thing from a clinical musical exercise and instead a stunning tribute to a fallen brother." - Distorted Sound

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Tags:  BELL WITCH, Mirror Reaper, Primitive Man, Doom Metal 

Red Baron    November 24, 2017