Band: Witch Ripper | Album: Through the Hourglass | Genre: Sludge metal, Progressive metal | Year: 2026
From: Seattle, USA | Label: Magnetic Eye Records
For fans of: Mastodon, Baroness, Coheed & Cambria
Witch Ripper is one of my favorite local acts, and they’re always near the top of my list of bands to recommend. Through the Hourglass is this quartet’s third full-length release, and it is a direct sequel to their last release, 2023’s The Flight after the Fall. The shared story of these records is obvious, even without looking at the lyrics, with the music here bearing clear throughlines from TFATF.
My first exposure to this record was at Witch Ripper’s album release show earlier this month. They played it in its entirety, and it was a killer performance. On subsequent listens, the album has grown on me even more.
After the brief intro “Odyssey in Retrograde”, which revisits some musical themes from their last album, “The Portal” storms forth with melodic sludge metal. Witch Ripper’s signature mixture of clean and harsh vocals lends some great textural variation while a steady rhythm drives this piece forward. The atmosphere is rich and enveloping, and there’s a strong sense of forward momentum. The band does a great job of evoking the feeling of traveling through the titular portal. The song’s second half also features some fantastic and fun soloing.
“Symmetry of the Hourglass” opens with bass-heavy, thumping sludge, but the drumming is deft and nimble, giving this a very kinetic feel. Guitar lines spiral and interlock in tense patterns one moment and open up into broad, spacy arpeggios the next. As this cut evolves, classic prog influences come to the fore with astral guitar lines, subtle synth embellishments, and soaring vocals.
“Echoes and Dust” is another energetic cut, with a constant upward push in intensity. This features some of the heaviest riffs on the record, and some exotic scales are deployed to add some great variance to the overall sound. There’s more fantastic soloing as this song reaches its climax, and there are flashes of acts like Coheed & Cambria and early Muse where Witch Ripper blends their sludge roots with artsy alt-rock.
Rippling, watery clean guitar opens “The Clock Queen” on a contemplative note. More subtle touches of synth appear here, and I really appreciate the fullness that adds to the sound, as well as their restraint with those textures. Stuttering, nervous riffs give the verses an anxious feel, and I love the way palm-muted clean guitar is used to similar effect as pizzicato violin to evoke close and tense atmospheres in orchestral pieces and film scores. Hints of Dream Theater are here, too, especially in certain guitar melodies. The climax is especially grand and majestic.
“Proxima Centauri” is the gentlest song in Witch Ripper’s whole catalog, at least in its first half. The tempo is sedate, drumming is light and diffuse, and the vocals are delicately sung. It’s a nice breather after such an intense set of songs prior to this. The guitar work is intricate and artful, and eschewing distortion really allowed the guitarists to show off their chops with minimal distractions. Even once the distortion comes in, the focus is on big, melodic guitar lines and some classically-influenced composition and playing.
Through the Hourglass closes on its longest song, “The Spiral Eye”. The riffs are looming and doom-laden, and the sound of a bell tolling only adds to that sense of dread. Guitars twist and intertwine, coiling around one another. Around this song’s midpoint, this maelstrom dissolves into a tense passage of clean guitar, hand percussion, and wordless vocals. Those wordless vocals continue even after the full band rejoins, adding great weight and a sense of eerie foreboding.
Witch Ripper’s new album is another fantastic outing from this band. The flow of the record is smooth and makes sense, and nothing feels out of place. While it lacks the obvious crowning opus that closes out their last album, the overall quality here is stellar. The band has taken up the mantle of bands like Mastodon and Baroness in their brand of complex, progressive sludge.
Score: 89/100
The Elite Extremophile 