Tennessee workhorses All Them Witches are one of the best in business. With now six albums under their belt, each sounding better and more dynamic than the last, ATW show that they are never ready to settle into a certain sound or be pigeonholed into a single genre. With their first two albums, Our Mother Electricity and Lightening at the Door, the band took a straight forward approach to psych rock; utilizing heavy fuzzed out guitars mixed with more laid back and atmospheric instrumentation. Songs These albums also showcases the band's love for the blues and maintaining a hypnotic groove (see "Until it Unwinds" and "Charles Williams") as well. ATW's more atmospheric side shined through on their next two albums: the folk focused Dying Surfer Meets His Maker and the all over the place Sleeping Through the War. Their last album, 2018's simply titled ATW, acts as the perfect middle ground for all the sounds heard through All Them Witches discography. In 2019, the band provided fans with a brief taste of things to come with the single "1x1" released on Halloween. Little else was released in regards to a new album. Soon, the band let it slip that they would be heading across the pond and recording their new album at Abby Road Studio 2; the same studio where The Beatles recorded their most famous album. Now, after a year of writing and restructuring, ATW presents Nothing as the Ideal released on New West Records.
Right from the start, All Them Witches makes it clear that they are determined to bring the heavy on this album. "Saturnine & Iron Jaw" starts with a lengthy, creepy intro featuring the bit crushed sounds of deep breaths backed by horror movie synths. After a brief blues guitar intro, ATW explodes into some of the heaviest guitar riffs ever heard in the band's discography. Guitarist Ben McLeod cranks up the distortion while the bass work from Charles Parks Jr. thunders. In an video with Hiwatt Amps, McLeod stated that he was trying to go for more Black Sabbath-style riffs and the first track is good indication of his desired direction. Robby Staebler's pulse pounding drumming really ties the track together. The lyrics quote the album title stating:
Nothing, that's the ideal.
Lead me back to myself
"Good day
For me at least
I'm not grinding my teeth
I'm not laying in wait
There's something warm
The dragons to slay
It's something of charm
To have nothing to say"
The instrumentation overall on "See You Next Fall" is very hypnotic and relaxing. After two verses, a splatty fuzz is placed on the guitars and the band turns up the distortion once again for an ending solo section.
"The Children of the Coyote Woman" is another entry in the "Coyote Woman" songs as heard on Lightening at the Door. The song does a great job of easing the listener into side B of the album This track takes a folky blues approach and uses the mythical Roman figures of Romulus and Remus to tell a story. The lyrics of this track are not just a simple rehash of the well-known Roman myth. Instead of the establishment of the city that would become the hub for the Roman Empire, All Them Witches place the mythical brothers in rural America, Arkansas specifically, and give them the surname of "Hill."
"Romulus and Remus Hill
Lived at the top of Ouchita Bend
Momma died, they laid her down
And quickly took to squabbling."
The lyrics also discuss how the fighting between Romulus and Remus causes great destruction throughout the country side, causing others to flee outward into the vast lands.
"They get to thumping and the house quaked
They call the lightening down from God's front gate
And all the neighbors had to move along
For fear they'd get caught of in the wake
Of the titan gods
Good old boys in the oubliette of life."
This twist in the lyrics is really unique and sets up a very interesting story. It's as if an old frontiersman is telling the telling of the origins of America through the lens of Roman mythology. The instrumentation of the song is very acoustic and slide guitar focused. The drums are washed in reverb with the toms leading the rhythm.
"41" acts as a bridge between the heavy and laid back style featured on Nothing as the Ideal. The heavy, almost sludge metal chugging is counterpointed by clean verse riffs and twangy open chords. The drums are very cymbal heavy and the bass is constantly thumping throughout the track. The lyrics take a Lovecraftian turn with "The great form, Has no shape nor evilness upon its face." The style heard on "Saturnine & Iron Jaw" and "Enemy of My Enemy" comes back on "Lights Out." Each member goes full force with the bass and guitar never playing clean and the drums pounding away. The outro of the track is another eerie section that leads into the closer "Rats in Ruins"
The most beautiful track on the album, "Rats in Ruin" is a ballad with Parks' voice being passed through a warbled, "Planet Caravan" filter. McLeod plays acoustic and some modulated, jangly clean electric guitar. The lyrics are what really steal the show on this track. Each verse is drenched in melancholy, are extremely thought provoking, and read like a poem.
Hung from the barbed wire fence
'Cause you never gave me
A little ground
Found all my belly fire
On the concertina wire
I had to get over it
Or go underground"
The prose of "Rats in Ruin" is some of the best lyrics present throughout all of ATW's expansive work. The lyrics juxtaposed with the overall heavier route this album takes, ends the album on a relaxing exhale rather than a headbang. It provides a moment of reflection, a brief snapshot in time to look inward and just think. Following the two verses, this amazing track ends on an uplifting, post-rock solo section. The drums finally join in with a slow and steady beat with well done fills. The guitar solo is very simple and features a lot of feedback. One hell of a track to cap off one hell of an album.
All them Witches really showcase all of their talents on Nothing as the Ideal. Despite leaning more toward an overall heavier sound, the psychedelic blues and folks seen on all their past work shines through. It is an album that will stomp listeners with distortion and simultaneously pick them up with some beautiful clean songs and passages. In an interview with Spin magazine, the band stated that after the release of "1x1" and trying their best to utilize a new studio space they built in Nashville, they needed a change of scenery to help break the funk they found themselves in. Recording in the legendary Abby Road Studio 2 definitely paid off for the band and helped produce one of their best albums. All in all, Nothing as the Ideal is a diverse and fun rock album that will be hard to top this year as one of the best in the genre.
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