Smoke rises from bloody corpses. Throngs of the undead scatter through the night, avoiding the light while hunting down more prey for their evil sacrificial games.

The stench of putrefaction looms heavy, swelling as the gritty, tortured souls bang about unwittingly. H.P. Lovecraft tale? Witchery gig? Who knows?

Comprised of vocalist Toxine, guitarists Jensen and Richard Corpse, bassist Sharlee D’Angelo and drummer Martin Axe (enough chuckling—they take their names quite seriously!), Witchery has been smearing a big black X across the globe with their decidedly un-Christian lyrics, taste for mayhem and bombastically heavy sound. Black Metal Gods to the nth degree.

Aptly titled Symphony for the Devil, Witchery’s latest strikes out against all things pure and wonderful, a sordid mixture of hatred for the church (a gag—let it go), love of disembowelling loved ones and praise for Old Scratch (Satan, to the uninitiated).

Their fourth release, Symphony…., has received praise from all corners of the metal map, gaining as much notoriety as it does airplay. “Again, it´s Witching Hour,” screams Toxine in his raspy, throat-tearing “voice.”

Together since 1997, the band’s first official show was not until a solid two years later, quite amusingly because Toxine sacked the entire band for the lame-o “musical differences” bullcrap.

Whatever. Either way, it’s clear that this was a good thing, ’cause the line-up has stayed pretty much the same since then, and the music is getting progressively heavier. Childish, maybe even asinine, but definitely better than the likes of 1998’s Restless and Dead, or their cover of W.A.S.P.’s “I Wanna Be Somebody.”

So why do we write about them? Well, anyone who paints their face like they’re dead and screeches over hyper speed music is cool. That, and they’re playing one of their first Canadian shows tonight! And, if you really think about it, they’re kinda kooky.

Feeding the myth, these guys are a stone’s throw away from the church-burning Norwegian pricks that instigated the whole Black Metal scene some 15 years ago. While it’s not very likely that Toxine and crew are about to take the old Zippo to Trinity-St. Paul’s any time soon, they’re, like, distant cousins to the truly evil, corpsepaint-wearing freaks who ate each other’s brains and committed ritual self-mutilation on stage.

So, in other words, they’re just as dark, clearly as heavy, but not as purely stupid! Yeah, they’re assholes for not calling us when they said they would, but hey, they’re evil. Who fucks with evil?

—Witchery play the Kathedral (651 Queen St. W.) tonight.

Discography:

Restless and Dead—1998
Witchburner–1999
Dead, Hot and Ready– 1999
Symphony for the Devil— 2001