PSYCHEDELIC WITCHCRAFT
Italian proto-metallers seek a musical and spiritual continuum
History suffers no shortage of men and women who speak with baffling certainty as to what lies beyond our human existence. There are others who, under the dim, dancing glow of candlelight, fearlessly navigate the smooth surface of a Ouija board to find out for themselves. For Virginia Monti, Psychedelic Witchcraft’s visionary singer and principal songwriter, communion with the shadow world is both a vital and revelatory part of her voyage.
Formed in Florence, Italy, in 2015, Psychedelic Witchcraft are both musicians and psychic sentinels, conjuring a deeply immersive, spiritualised experience that draws as generously from the concussive force of Sabbath and Zeppelin as from the druggy netherworld of 70s psychedelia. Their latest outing, Sound Of The Wind, rips open a kaleidoscopic portal into an enchanted realm churning with velvety soundscapes, seditiously melodies and pummelling blasts of classic rock.
“When I was eight, my father gave me Led Zeppelin II,” Virginia recalls. “It changed my life. After running through my dad’s collection I developed a passion for all the greatest – Sabbath’s first four albums, Cream’s Wheels of Fire, Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland and Are You Experienced? and Jethro Tull’s Aqualung.”
Like those releases, Sound Of The Wind emanates a soulful vitality that pitches Psychedelic Witchcraft far beyond the spiritless generic sludge clogging today’s proto-metal revivalism. In the brazen swagger of tracks like Wild We Go and Turn Me On and the sleazy allure of Sin Of Mine, you can hear a band paying homage to their influences while charting a wild and rugged course entirely their own.
Underlying these psychotropic soundscapes is a reflective spirituality that plays out in lyrical references to nature, energy, tarot cards and the afterlife. There’s even a song called The Warrens, about the real-life exorcist couple who inspired The Amityville Horror and The Conjuring.
“The story of Ed and Lorraine Warren really fascinated me,” Virginia says. “I read their book, The Demonologist, and what I found fascinating was not only their supernatural adventures but also the amount of love they were sharing for each other and for other people.” Of her own experiences with the paranormal, Virginia reveals, “An important person in my life bought me two vintage Ouija boards as a gift and I started playing with them. Now that I’m a bit experienced, I personally believe that spirits do exist, that the soul never dies, that we’re all connected and that we all belong to the same source. It’s not only a matter of occultism for me, it’s a matter of self-discovery.”
When asked where they’d like to see themselves in a few years, most bands discuss world tours, headlining venues or achieving some degree of commercial success. But Psychedelic Witchcraft remain firmly in the moment. “I don’t know where music will bring us,” Virginia says. “I never really wonder about that. As we wrote on the album, we all four felt that we are on the only path where we could possibly be in this life. As such, we’re just embracing it as it is.”