This is by far the most competent and lively playing I've heard from WITCHCRAFT, flowing with ease through a variety of musical situations. It's also the most powerful and passionate work they've done to date. Get ready for a wild ride and a metaphysical trip of uh, alchemical proportions. Kicking ass and laying back on some tasteful melodies in all the right places, "The Alchemist" hits it on the nail without fail and may be the breakthrough release for these Swedish purveyors of retro doom and dark psychedelia. Opening with just the right lift off point in "Walk Between The Lines", the stage is set for the go-for-the-throat onslaught of "If Crimson Were Your Colour", a dangerous piece shrouded with ominous, macabre lyrics and vocals. Armed with a massive heavy riff and a lone, unexpected synth run that takes you right back to 1973, unrestrained Blues howls and a great lead guitar run, this is WITCHCRAFT's first single for the album. Also with the lyrics, "The heart of a new born baby...That has been slain", it hearkens back to their namesake song and first track off their debut, with its images of child sacrifice. More than a little disturbing to yours truly, but perhaps art isn't always meant to make us feel comfortable. In any case, this is the first example of the brilliant song sequencing that is another standout achievement of "The Alchemist" - when each track begins it grips your attention severely due to the nature of its predecessor. This suggests a kind of musical insight that few bands today seem to possess; it even rivals the supposed masters of such compositional segueways such as THE BEATLES or PINK FLOYD.

The following track is a rolling heavy Blues that hits the groove right away but is unexpected in its use of Swedish lyrics. Their initial attempt at Swedish lyrics on their first album always sounded a bit unnatural to me, yet perhaps unnatural is good in the realm of extreme music. This one, of course, is even more bizarre given it's a Blues song, but after a few listens, sounds completely appropriate. It was still amazing how it kicked ass nonetheless even on the first listen. The band's versatility is evident in the semi-acoustic Folk passage in "Samaritan Burden", but this suggestion becomes not only concrete but hammered down point blank with the album's epic closer and title track, "The Alchemist". It is certainly no heavy-handed slouch in the sense of pretentious, over-drawn conceptual wanks, but is a brilliant piece of music in three parts. Continuing initially with the high energy of "Remembered", it morphs into a brooding ballad of WITCHCRAFT's trademark occult volatility, developing nicely, melodically, and then into some heavy Blues riffery. When vocalist Magnus Pelander says, "I can blow your mind", oddly, I'm inclined to believe him. His claim is backed up when the band moves into a strange semi-acoustic section where seemingly a dark starry night, wizards, and decidedly un-hippy-palatable mushrooms (due to their fiery and toxic nature) abound. The uncertain trip progresses as WITCHCRAFT take the journey up a notch with some lead guitar reminiscent of RUSH's classic "Caress Of Steel". They remain brooding and reticent with a return to the verse and the mounting aggression of the heavy Blues riff; "I can blow your mind"...Okay, you're succeeding! The sequencing of the entire opus has just led the listener to this crucial, closing point, and the effect is indeed...mind blowing.

So WITCHCRAFT have gotten heavier (while remaining purely old school and retaining their subtlety), more varied, atmospheric, and so archaic that you'd swear it really was the '70's - than anything else they've done. Indeed, WITCHCRAFT haven't just created an appearance of having stumbled into the present from the '70's by time machine, they've really captured classic atmospheres and moments that are truly powerful and absolutely authentic. Why do the '70's have to end? I ask while listening to this, and I'm compelled to fire up my old bong, although I left it in the attic years ago. This is an alchemical journey of the highest order, laced with belladonna and mandrake, psychedelic and revelatory to the utmost of the astral planes. Plus...it rocks!