This doctor may not be able to write you a prescription for the medicine you need about now but if you already have it then it’s time to sit back, inhale and let the healing begin.
It doesn’t matter what time it is because with Doctor Smoke it is now The Witching Hour, now exhale and we can begin…
The Willow gets us started with a classic hard rock groove that sets the tone for all that is about to come your way. As the vocals of Matt Tluchowski kick in I can’t help but immediately think of a favorite of mine, Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats.
Where Uncle Acid goes in a psychedelic direction Doctor Smoke stays to the stoner rock side and grooves hard. If you like classic 70s style hard/stoner rock then you will be very happy with Doctor Smoke. “As The Willow weeps the hand of death creeps”, a line that is both classic and catchy all at once.
Blood & Whiskey is a bit lighter than the doom groove of The Willow more like something that may have actually gotten radio play in about 1977 or something when radio had a little more freedom to play what they wanted. As a horror writer I can’t help love the line in this song, “With Lucifer my friend, I’ve come to kill again.” Beautiful words people, just beautiful! This rocker gives way to a doomy-er groove of Evil Man which is also the longest song on the album at about 7 minutes. The chorus is catchy and should have you singing along immediately as your head nods up and down with that damn fine groove.
The Toll picks up the pace nicely coming off the slower Evil Man sounding like a Budgie tune or a stoner rock version of a Diamond Head track. The Toll flat out just rocks! This brings us to the album’s mid-point and the first early release by the band in Faces in the Fog. The song is an up tempo rocker that is perfect as a sample of what Doctor Smoke have to offer as a total package. It starts out with a doom riff before breaking out into a rocker that picks up the tempo mid-way through again reminding me of a stoner version of a Diamond Head track which is by no means a bad thing. For the youngsters out there Diamond Head was an early act in the NWBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) and covered numerous times by Metallica.
From Hell is one “wicked and impure” tune and hey, it’s right there in the chorus. An obvious nod to Jack the Ripper but I really have to commend Doctor Smoke on their song writing prowess which, quite honestly, is well above average. With a name like Doctor Smoke it would be easy to write 8-10 songs laced with subtle and not so subtle weed references but that isn’t what Doctor Smoke does. The songs are all extremely well written taking a nod more often from my world of horror than from juvenile stoner references that have all been done a million times over. A big kudos to Doctor Smoke for that!
The Seeker begins with a very Sabbath-esque riff but then Black Sabbath did it all and are an obvious influence on everything hard rock and metal. Doctor Smoke let a little Sabbath love flow as The Seeker would be right at home on an early Sabbath album. The Final Hour blazes in to give us one last kick ass jam before the album comes to an end but you’ll be delighted to have your ass kicked in such a fashion. Permanent Night brings a heavy groove to close out the album like something that would be right at home on a, the aforementioned, Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats album (specifically thinking of Mind Control). Doctor Smoke decide to go out in a blaze of glory ending the album on an extreme up note. Of course, this only makes you wanna hit play again… and you should!
Also Doctor Smoke seem to do it well live unlike too many others. Until they come to your neck of the woods here’s a live performance of The Willow
The Witching Hour was released Nov 4th via Totem Cat Records. You can purchase by clicking the “buy” link from bandcamp above. I honestly liked every song on the album with no definitive favorite so I’ve spun the entire album a few times rather than one track over and over which isn’t really a complaint and one I hope you’ll share with me. Feel my pain!
Words: Feind Gottes (editor,Thy Demons Be Scribblin )
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