All Them Witches Nothing As The Ideal [Reissue]

All Them Witches are an American rock band from Nashville, Tennessee. The band consists of drummer Robby Staebler, vocalist / multi-instrumentalist Charles Michael Parks Jr., guitarist Ben McLeod and keyboardist Allan Van Cleave.

The band’s musical style incorporates elements from multiple genres, such as hard rock, stoner rock, psychedelia, neopsychedelia, blues, folk and southern rock; however, Julian Marszalek of The Quietus noted that: “... this isn’t blues of the ‘woke-up-this-morning’ variety but one of malaise, anxiety and fear brought on a by world seemingly dead set on destruction; nor is this an escapist variant of psychedelia wherein one form of reality is jettisoned in favour of another for reasons of cheap thrills.”

Nothing as the Ideal is the follow up to All Them Witches’ acclaimed 2018 ATW LP and last year’s standalone single “1X1.” Unremittingly forward-looking, the new album is their most experimental work to date. Tape loops coincide with unplugged minimalism. It’s their heaviest album marked by their broadest atmospheres, intimate and pummeling. Nothing as the Ideal is also their first full length album as a paired down trio, their smallest iteration as a band.

Nothing as the Ideal might forever be known as “the album All Them Witches made at Abbey Road.” Fair enough. You don’t record in a legendary studio surrounded by mics The Beatles used, sitting on the bench where John Lennon tracked the acoustic guitar for “A Day In The Life” without acknowledging that history. There’s no getting away from it. Where the album triumphs, however, is in making that space and that history the band’s own. All Them Witches not only did justice to the moment they were capturing — the sheer adventure of being there, doing that thing — but answered the call of their inspiration as they always do. They succeeded in crafting a defining moment for who they are as a band, with each player’s personality coming together to create a fluidity that is unique unto them.

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