Refusing to conform to a steady formula, hard-rock-come-psych-rock quartet All Them Witches are back with their fifth album ‘ATW’.

With a bustling back catalogue under their belts, it comes as no surprise that ‘ATW’ strips away what you thought an All Them Witches record should sound like.

‘Workhorse’ leads with twanging guitars that lazily roll to life alongside Robby Staebler, who manages to precisely bash everything but the actual drums on his kit. There’s an otherworldly addictiveness on ‘ATW’ that expertly ebbs and flows: the chugging riffs on ‘1st vs 2nd’ make way for the new addition of Jonathan Draper on keys and organ – wrapping the albums mid-way point, ‘Half-Tongue’, in a heady swathe of nostalgic blues.

See the video to ‘Diamond’ by All Them Witches:

‘Harvest Feast’ is a lazy autumn afternoon, as hazy blues rhythms slowly build to a grooving crescendo, while ‘Diamond’ reverbs with a dark melancholy that sounds as if it’s been plucked straight from a Deftones Record that was never written. All Them Witches’ penchant for keeping the listener on the edge of oblivion shines through in the albums closer ‘Rob’s Dream’: which rollicks with a bass rumble and southern vocals from Parks JR to it’s mind bending finale.

‘ATW’ is a fantastic insight into a band that works very differently from their contemporaries. With guitarist Ben McLeod at the producers’ helm, it feels as if we’ve been let into the practice room to hear All Them Witches jam. It’s raw, it’s experimental and hedonistic in its delivery, with instrumentals that tell a story all on their own — promising to melt faces along the way.

‘ATW’ by All Them Witches is available now through New West Records: Apple Music | Amazon | Spotify