It’s always a bad idea to judge an album by its title. There I was, assuming that The Vast Electric Dark would be a slab of drone-y, plodding distortion in the post-metal mode—a statement by a band that thinks more in terms of soundscapes than riffs. But I was wrong (and how). Australia’s Witchskull plays a nervy, focused kind of heavy metal that careens from one riff to the next with the force of a truck rolling downhill. Or, better yet, maybe this is the sound of whatever lives out there in the vast electric dark—some creature, all sinew and muscle and bone, moving relentlessly forward, honed shark-like for its single purpose. Continue reading →