Temple Of The Fuzz Witch live 11/20/24
Live at the Jewel Music Venue in Manchester, New Hampshire, USA *November 20th 2024*
The timing of seeing the Temple Of The Fuzz Witch live couldn’t have been any better. On November 11th, I posted a review of the band’s latest album Apotheosis (review here) after discovering them a couple of weeks prior. I was extremely impressed with their sound and marveled on how well they are able to seamlessly blend various styles of heavy music into their own. Heavy doom/ stoner/ sludge, and black metal are all present in Apotheosis while not trying to sound different or unique, or anyone else for that matter. The vocals are especially cool with the clean singing mixed with the harsh sludge vocals. Anyways, after I reviewed the album, I discovered that they were going on tour with Montreal’s Dopethrone. The first show of the tour started in Manchester, New Hampshire at the Jewel Nightclub. This marks my third show this year at that club. I saw The Atomic Bitchwax (review here) this past July and D.R.I. (review here) in September. The club is only thirty minutes from where I live and very convenient for me.
I arrived at the club just before 8:00pm right before the opening band went on. Temple Of The Fuzz Witch was playing right after them and I wanted to chat with them and buy some merchandise. My plan was to leave right after they were done playing because I had to wake up at 2:00am to go to work. Unfortunately, I had to miss the headliner, Dopethrone. Anyways, I positioned myself right in front of the stage as Temple Of The Fuzz Witch began setting up their equipment and waited patiently for the band to begin.
The band started their set with the first song on Apotheosis, entitled “A Call To Prey”. The song begins with a fuzzy bass riff and then devastates everything in its path. The music was super heavy and crushing! The rhythm pounded through my chest and the guitar distortion was a wall of fuzz. They sounded fantastic! It’s a perfect opening song because the pile driving riffs are brutal and gets things going right from the start. The vocals are vicious on this track and stay sludgy throughout. The next song was called “Bathsheba”, the first track from the band’s Self Titled debut. It has a heavy doom laden sound in line with Sabbath and contains all clean vocals. It played out great in a live setting and showed a different side to the Fuzz Witch. The band started out as a more traditional doom sounding band with all clean vocals on their first two records.
The third song they played was “Ashes”, the last cut on Apotheosis. The return of the harsh vocals and more savage riffing were on display. I was really getting into their set at this point and I enjoyed the cool flange bass break in the middle of the song. The tempo changes are also excellent on this one too. The band then went into “Wight” and the clean vocals were very low in the mix but the screams were on point. The music sounded awesome though and Temple Of The Fuzz Witch explore some black metal riffing on this one. The song went right into a brand new one called “Effigy” and the clean vocals were back in the mix. I had never heard this one before but I liked it a lot. However, the guitar was shorting out on a couple of parts. Guitarist/ vocalist Noah Bruner handled it like a champ though and got it straightened out in no time. That slight mishap did not slow down the band or deter them from performing an obliterating set.
They bounced back with their stoner doom grunge anthem “Bow Down”, which is probably the band’s most catchy song. It’s an awesome rager and displays Bruner’s vocal range in full effect. They proceeded to play the first track on the Red Tide album called “Baphomet”, which is a slower behemoth of a song. Finally, the band closed with one of their newest songs called “Foul Of Shades”. It begins with an awesome grooving bass line that carries into the riff. It’s another barn burner that executes on all harsh vocals. The music has a fantastic flow and groove about it and serves as a nice send off to an incredible set.
I was totally impressed with Temple Of The Fuzz Witch and was surprised on how fantastic they sounded live. I had goosebumps throughout the set and left knowing that I made the right decision to attend this show. I was hyped up for hours afterwards and only slept about an hour before I had to get up for work, but it was definitely worth it. I have no idea how Dopethrone sounded but I wouldn’t want to follow Temple Of The Fuzz Witch after that performance.
