Warlockhunt – Prey
Warlockhunt – Prey
Pyrrhic Defeat Records
Release date: 14/11/2025
Review by Alun Jones
9/10
Autumn in the UK seems like the ideal time of year for a new release from Warlockhunt. The days are getting shorter and cooler, the leaves turning to orange and yellow and falling to the ground. The veil between this world and the next is at its thinnest, and the dark melancholy of nature can be best observed.
Warlockhunt is a three-piece band, consisting of Chris on drums, and two bass players: Mark and Lorraine (who also handles vocals). This choice of instrumentation allows Warlockhunt to exist as something very different from the rest of the Doom Metal crowd. The absence of crunching guitar allows the music to explore a more atmospheric, though no less heavy, landscape.
The album begins with a lengthy intro of synthesised bass, which thaws out the beginning of ‘Turn Away’. Slowly, a pulsing bass emerges, punctuated with stark, precise drumming. The dreamlike female vocals blossom and float alongside the melody, rather than dominating it. ‘Diary of Hate’ has a more direct but no less minimal approach, with a simple bass sound and thumping percussion creating a hypnotic ground for the vocals, till the pace increases for a frenzied finale.
‘Mourn’ has an almost folky, medieval character, still prevalent when the drums crash in with a marching rhythm. The tribal drumbeats have a Post Punk crispness that are as much a feature as that moody bass – see ‘Fake’ as another prime example of this. On the title track, those drums reach Killing Joke-like intensity, leading the dark revelry as much as underpinning it. And over all of that are the vocals, both sombre and enchanting.
Warlockhunt have been called Doom Pop in the past (most notably by me, haha!) and the description still stands. This is less the onslaught of Cathedral or Trouble, and more like Joy Division creating a soundtrack for a folk horror movie – with Nancy Sinatra singing. “Prey” is an exercise in climate, in ambience – though still heavy with the air of dark melancholy. Watch the sun go down and enjoy the darkness.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Turn Away
02. Diary of Hate
03. Magdalene
04. Your Flaw, Your Fate
05. Mourn
06. Prey
07. You Fall
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