When the word “committed” crops up in a discussion about UK hard rock bands, especially the ones that helped spawn heavy metal and their admirers, it’s usually in reference to one or more of their members failing to disembark the drug-saturated crazy train when they should have. But in the case of English hard rock squadron Wytch Hazel, the pure sense of the term couldn’t be more applicable.
Wytch Hazel dropped their first full-length in 2011. Now, when an album title starts with I:, it’s a good indicator the band behind it means business. When they launch a series with a Prelude record, it takes guts. When they embark on their career making such a titular decision, well, that’s sheer ballsiness. But that’s exactly what Wytch Hazel did with their debut, allowing them to name their recently released Bad Omen/ Metal Blade album V: Lamentations with legitimacy and pride.
“I’ve just wanted each of our records to be better than the last one,” vocalist/guitarist Colin Hendra, who joined Wytch Hazel shortly after the band got underway, says succinctly and with humility.
Indeed, the propelling force behind Wytch Hazel is their yen for exploring new musical dimensions with each successive batch of recordings, Hendra explains. The band also features guitarist Alex Haslam, bassist Andy Shackleton, and drummer Aaron Hay.
“We listen to the same albums, so we’re always looking for quite classic sounds but without it being a copycat production,” he says. “There’s no rules saying I couldn’t keep writing the same album 10 times. It’s most important than it makes me happy. It’s rock and roll, man. But we decided we wanted something that works for our sound, but where we’re not starting from zero or the ground up.
“This time around, we chose to record something that’s just on the edge of being clean, without it being ‘clean clean,’” Hendra continues about the new Wytch Hazel effort. “A big reference for us is Mob Rules by Black Sabbath. This time around, we were (also) thinking of a lot of stuff by Martin Birch, production-wise.”
Birch’s name, sadly, doesn’t surface as frequently as it should in conversations about the cultural and musical impact of British hard rock, and how it led to the advent of heavy metal. The departed studio wizard turned the knobs for Deep Purple, Rainbow, and Black Sabbath at critical junctures in their careers.
“We really love those sounds, especially (1981’s) Fire of Unknown Origin by Blue Öyster Cult,” Hendra notes.
From a more technical perspective, Hendra–who also engineered V: Lamentations–made sure his guitars “have a bit of overdrive, then do something with a bit more gain.”
Hendra also pushed himself from a lyrical perspective, saying Wytch Hazel’s new outing captures him more “honest and introspective” than ever before about personal issues including depression and chronic exhaustion that have taken a toll on his vocal delivery.
“I wrestle with some things that have got worse in my life, or deeper (into my psyche,) and I wanted to get into the weeds of those ideas and express them,” Hendra reveals.
The process of working through those issues in his art led to a positive ending thematically for V: Lamentations–so much so that the guitarist is already gearing up for Wytch Hazel’s next release, struggles with unhealthy work ethic be damned.
“There’s a silver lining at the end (of the LP) that feels right,” Hendra concludes. ”The healing power was a great landing place, and it almost feels like that’s perhaps the direction and the turning point for another album lyrically again. Who knows: It might just be another Wytch Hazel-sounding album. But lyrically, I would expect there to be a bit of a change on the next album, if that makes sense.”
For a band devoted to mixing it up, even if they aren’t obligated to, nothing else could make more sense.
V: Lamentations is out Friday, and you can preorder it from Metal Blade Records. Follow Wytch Hazel on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for future updates.
Photo Credit: Elly Lucas
