Single Review: Witches Brew

Christchurch quintet Elidi are back with their latest single, released just in time for their South Island gigs with Pull Down the Sun in April, before they head out on a NZ-wide tour with Stonehurst in a few months’ time. They describe themselves as progressive, but before you start thinking these guys are Genesis or Pink Floyd clones, understand they are talking progressive in its truest sense, which is blending together different styles and types of music into something which refuses to sit sedately within any particular sub-genre and instead goes wherever it leads, being taken on a journey in the same way as the listener.

Singer Dan Russell is quite happy to be melodic for the most part, yet he can also rip it up when he needs to, in a style not too dissimilar to David Draiman, although in a slightly different register. Witches Brew may start quietly with picked guitars, but it does not stay that way for too long, and even though this song is only 3:30 long, it feels very much like an epic. If ever a song was made to have a video recorded in the Alps then this is it, as this is music to be played under the wide open skies, not constrained by four walls. Even when twin guitarists Richie Jehan and Jack Orr are tempted to move into Meshuggah-style djent at the end of the first verse they pull back, knowing the time is not quite right, but when they hit the chorus for the second time everybody piles in, with Troy Cameron attempting to keep some semblance of normality while ahead of him the guitarists are in freefall and down-tuned mayhem and behind him Steve Howden is attempting to destroy his cymbals and drums at the same time. I can imagine that when this is played live it is a lot longer, as there is the impression they are only just getting warmed up, and the final section could be two or three times the length.

Tool are an obvious influence, while Disturbed, Black Sabbath, Karnivool, System of a Down, Meshuggah and many others get thrown into the cauldron of the Witches Brew, and if this is what the single is like I can’t wait for a full album.