Half of four piece Arkham Witch (they’re from Keighley tha’ knows) are two thirds of eccentric doom wizards The Lamp Of Thoth (go on, do the math, it’s easy). That’d be Simon Iff? on those rich, mad vocals and Emily Ningauble on the super solid, battering drums. Rounded out by J D on some thundering bass and Aldo Doom on the great crunch of a guitar this is their second album after one of my unexpected highlights of last year ‘On Crom’s Mountain’.

I say unexpected because although I hoped it would be good after the demo I didn’t think that debut would be so bloody excellent. So lots to live up to and even from the cover this is clearly a class follow up – a superb Lovecraftian seascape in deep blues

“Shut up Giz and tell us about the music would ye?”

Gather round, then, for this is an arcane recipe and must be whispered: Take the bouncing energetic doom of The Lamp Of Thoth, bind it tight to the heavier groove of true heavy metal from the NWOBHM and seed it with four parts sinister, occult and Lovecraftian madness and one part humour so dry that it would leech all the water from R’lyeh in a single spin, and you almost have it. All you need add is mention of giant penguins. Oh and riffs the size of a mountain that stay in your head for eons. Because, by the gods of the outer spheres and the tiny tip-tapping of Brown Jenkins little claws, they can write fucking SONGS! Chorus sing along, rabble rousing, bastard kicking songs.

It all kicks off with the curiously titled, doomy ‘David Lund’, an elaborate excursion into the esoteric history of Yorkshire (from whence The Lamp Of Thoth name comes), which rides a dark, stormy riff and a worshipful chorus graced by some organ sounds and Simon’s vocals as the wild eyed charismatic cult leader. The follow up though takes us much further afield, to the very peaks ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ which has the archetypal Arkham Witch riff: groove, crunch and just with a hook the size of a shoggoth’s bad attitude. With a speeding mid section and wonderful guitar melody line over the bass and drums if you stop headbanging long enough you will just end up grinning at how tight this band is. By the time ‘ Iron Shadows In The Moon’ hits the beach (it’s a R E Howard Conan story, not Nazis in space), and the pounding obliteration off ‘Infernal Machine’ the album already feels like a well loved, well thumbed pulp fiction collection. It has that immediacy, that verve and life that only belongs to those who do what they love and damn the naysayers. I mean is there any other band anywhere who can as on ‘Kult Of Kutulu’ use the whole “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn’ line as a sing-along chorus? No, I think not. I think not indeed, and the frothing mad backing vocals are just inspired.

The undulating ‘The Cloven Sea’, the utterly inspired heavy metal charge of ‘A Horse Called Vengeance’, the anthemic stomp of ‘Gods Of Storm And Thunder’ with one of the most authentic British Heavy Metal riffs in years, ‘Legions Of The Deep’ calling us to join the Old Ones with a lure that’s pretty darned impossible to refuse, this is… Ah fuck it. It’s just brilliance waggling two pseudopods in the face of all hipsters hiding behind irony.

There is an untitled acoustic track on here (it’s Blood On Satan’s Claw from the first Lamp Of Thoth album) but the real closer here is the erudite but to the point ‘We’re From Keighley’ which is actually, amongst the humour, a real bit of local pride speaking, mill fires in their eyes and the moors in their hearts. Heavy metal heroes with a fucking sackload of headbanging songs.

Just buy the fucker already. And if you are quick and check out their facebook page they have a cracking cd+t shirt deal.

One of the three best heavy metal albums this year. From anyone. Anywhere. Just this one is from Keighley.

(9/10 Gizmo)

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