Originating from Nashville, Tennessee, All Them Witches consist of Robby Staebler (drummer), Charles Michael Parks Jr.(vocals/guitars), Ben McLeod (guitars), and Jonathan Draper (keyboard). The band formed in 2012 with the release of their first album Our Mother Electricity. This album helped to grab the listeners attention due to the band's Black Sabbath-like sound, mixed with Sleep's stoner/doom metal. By the group being able to fuse together these two different genres of music they are able to create a new sound for themselves which has fluctuated throughout their discography.

Instrumentals play a huge role in their music due to their doom and stoner metal influences. The traditional doom/stoner metal song is typically a longer track than most traditional songs and encompasses repeating guitar riffs for minutes at a time. By doing this, the genre is able to drag out the best parts of the song and allows the listener to hyperfocus on the music's rhythm. This influence of genres has allowed some of their albums to stand out, however I feel like sometimes the band is trying too hard to sound like Black Sabbath. This was the case for their last album Sleeping Through the War, and for half the tracks on their newest project ATW.

This new album peaked my interest because I wasn't that into their previous album. Sleeping Through the War sounded over saturated and didn't have the same feel as Dying Surfer Meets His Maker, Lightning at the Door, or Our Mother Electricity had. Listening to those albums felt like you were listening to a story, whereas Sleeping Through the War felt more like individual tracks that happened to appear on the same album. Needless to say, I was intrigued by the release of ATW because I hoped that the band would revert back to their older themes.

I was disappointed by the opening track to the album "Fishbelly 86 Onions" because it sounded like a continuation of Sleeping Through the War. I cringed hard in the middle of the track when Parks counted one through twenty, and then rhymed the next verse off the word "twenty." "Find you a girl to steal all your money. Find you a boy to rob your health." Thankfully after this track the album became more interesting.

I enjoyed listening to the rest of the album because each track has a lot of instrumentation, which at times was easy to get lost in. These instrumentals were what I had loved about the band since I had heard Dying Surfer Meets His Maker and I'm glad to see that they have returned onto ATW. My favorite songs off this new album were "Workhorse", "Harvest Feast", "Diamond", "HJTC" and "Rob's Dream" because I felt like the songs paid tribute to the band's older material. I really enjoyed listening to the easy sounding guitarwork of "HJTC", "Harvest Feast", and "Rob's Dream", while also being drawn into the lyrics of "Workhorse". "I moved alone downhill of the smoke, that I've known, though it changed since I was a boy. I'm a workhorse when I am able. More like a warhorse caught in the stable." These lyrics can be interpreted to mean that once someone grows up, they transition into being a workhorse that works for the rest of their days. Rather than who they want to be (the warhorse) which is trapped inside the stable. "Rob's Dream" sounded like a track that would be played in an old-school Pokémon videogame, similar to the "Lavendertown Theme". The song is dark, mysterious, and has a pixelated guitar theme that adds to the overall ambiance of the music.

Overall, I was very impressed by this album and that it was nearly an hour long while only consisting of eight tracks. ATW is a great album to listen to while you're on the road or traveling because its easy to get lost in your own thoughts while you hear awesome instrumentals in the background. ATW impressed me because it sounded like the band had gotten back into their own unique sound. I might buy the album on vinyl to complete my discography of All Them Witches, however I definitely recommend purchasing Dying Surfer Meets His Maker instead because it is their most magnificent piece of work to date. ATW received a 7.5 out of 10 and I look forward to hearing what All Them Witches produce next.