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BLACK KNIFE
Baby Eater Witch

Wise Blood / Mercenary Press (2023)
Rating: 7/10

Okay, how can one not be attracted to an album featuring track titles such as ‘Evil Sex On Halloween’, ‘Heavy Metal Punx From Hell’, ‘Crawling Through Your Guts To See The Light’ and ‘Snakebite Succubus’? This is the spooktacular third outing from the Lexington, Kentucky-based trio which formed in 2016 and is a perfect autumnal soundtrack for those who like to huddle around the cauldron and concoct a special brew.

Black Knife – featuring Hellwulv (guitar / vocals), Bast (bass) and Thumbcutter (drums / vocals) – delivers a particularly nasty brand of punk infused black n’ speed metal, the sort of whip cracking venom that we are all so familiar with but which time and time again we find ourselves under the heinous spell of. The trio doesn’t mess around as they jumpstart straight into the scowling fury of ‘Haunt Your Nightmares’, which billows black plumes of Bathory smoke while discarding sordid, odious embers of first and second wave black metal.

‘Red Rotten Face’ and the snarling title track have no interest in deviating as both numbers spitefully rattle and spit like a fitting cobra. It is evil in its occult driven way, as track after track zips by like a pack of rabid wolves. In a sense, I’m glad I’ve not followed the threesome since the beginning as my attention would have waned by now, but I did enjoy the 2020 split EP (Flying Death) with Brazil’s Whipstriker and Black Knife’s 2021 album Murder Season.

Baby Eater Witch is fast n’ raw DIY devil’s metal and does exactly what it says on the damp ouija board, only this time the planchette is scurrying all over the place. ‘Screaming From The Depths Of Hell’ is about as melodious as it gets, although Hellwulv remains steadfast in his vocal outbursts which are akin to an icy gale snapping at your neck. ‘Killed By A Ghost’ is a horrific amalgamation of Motörhead, old Destruction and vintage Sodom, leaving the walls coated in a powdery sediment and a stench of sulphur as if one has just shit out those cheap beers you had last night.

Elsewhere, ‘Heavy Metal Punx From Hell’ careers off with a Hellhammer guitar tone, ‘Curse Of The Devil Bat’ engulfs with its speed and ‘Snakebite Succubus’ offers a mere whiff of something more measured. But in the great, clouded scheme of things this album revels behind its own acidic smokescreen and plies the listener with high doses of alcohol-infused mayhem to choke on through the night.

Neil Arnold

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