Temple Of The Fuzz Witch – Apotheosis

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · November 11, 2024

Temple Of The Fuzz Witch is a heavy stoner/ sludge/ doom metal band from Detroit, Michigan. The band formed in 2017 and released a three song EP in early 2018. They currently have three full length albums out including: 2019’s Self Titled, 2020’s Red Tide, and their latest 2024’s Apotheosis, which came out on April 4th on Ripple Music. The band members consist of Noah Bruner on vocals, guitar and synth, Joe Peet on bass, and Taylor Christian on the drums.

Temple Of The Fuzz Witch has a completely devastating sound! Apotheosis is their debut for Ripple Music and it is a banger, for sure. “A Call To Prey” begins with a super fuzzy bass riff that builds into a heavy driving rhythm. The high register harsh vocals are fitting for this music and it overlays the riffs perfectly. The song has a nice flowing groove that gets the album rolling right from the start. The band incorporate some double bass drumming too which is cool. The second track “Wight” introduces clean vocals to the mix which really gives their sound a more dynamic effect. The song has a death metal style tremolo picking that fits nicely with their heavy and chunky riffs. They utilize the sludgy vocals also which adds a great contrast to the two. “Nephilim” starts slow and heavy with haunting clean vocals. The song trudges into a swampy avalanche of doom. The music then diverges at one point and breaks into a grinding blast beat. Elements of black metal are incorporated into the Temple Of The Fuzz Witch’s sound which gives the songs a more varied structure to the musical devastation in which they construct. The band isn’t married to one genre of heavy music. They incorporate equal parts doom, sludge, black metal, and stoner rock. “Bow Down” has a rocking stoner groove with wah effect guitars and excellent clean, almost grunge style vocals. They also inject the riffy sludge seamlessly into the song. One thing is certain, Temple Of The Fuzz Witch are architects of the heavy riff.

The fifth track entitled “Sanguine” is another great song. It starts with a slow and doomy riff that bulldozes into a mix of clean singing with tortured vocals. The menacing rhythms carry on into “Cursed”, and “Raze (Varg)” which both favor a more steady rocking doom laden groove with a blended vocal approach. “Apostate” is a brutal down tuned colossal. It’s a slow brooding dirge of mass destruction. Some of the music reminds me of Primitive Man and The Mighty Nimbus with the heavy fuzz drenched in swampy sludge. The vocal contrasts could be compared to the almighty Acid Bath. The ninth and final track “Ashes” has a plodding start that rips into a hardcore rhythm with double bass drumming and then returns. The nasty vocals are prominent and unrelenting. They have a cool flange bass bridge that creeps back into the steamrolling riff for a bit. The song picks up once more for a couple of measures and then comes to a halt.

The recording itself, sounds super dense and diabolical on Apotheosis. The production is as heavy as a ten ton cinder block. Temple Of The Fuzz Witch has a penchant of creating a ruthless furry of annihilating music that punishes upon its release. It’s pretty remarkable on how heavy of a sound is produced by only three bandmembers. This is my introduction to the band and I am completely blown away. The music checks so many boxes in it’s sonic savagery of extreme metal, doom, rock, and beyond.