Seattle sludge purveyors Witch Ripper are embarking on a West Coast tour in continued support of their Sept. 2018 album, Homestead, as well as their recent split release with Brume. The band are teaming up with Louisiana doomsters Forming The Void for many of the dates, and today are debuting a brand-new video for the song "S.L.U. The Hive" on Metal Injection to build buzz around the forthcoming tour.
Formed by Minnesota transplants to Seattle Curtis Parker (guitars/vocals) and Joe Eck (drums), Witch Ripper blend melodic prog and crushing riffs with complexity and searing aggression. Their DHU Records full-length debut Homestead was cited as, "equally adept at delivering hooks and crushing riffs," (Decibel) and saw the band touring extensively behind it.
October/November Tour Dates
(All with Forming the Void except *)
- Thursday 10/24 – Spokane, WA at The Red Room
- Friday 10/25 – Seattle, WA at The Funhouse
- Saturday 10/26 – Olympia, WA at Le Voyeur
- Sunday 10/27 – San Francisco, CA at DNA Lounge
- Monday 10/28 – San Jose, CA at Press Club
- Tuesday 10/29 – Santa Cruz, CA at Blue Lagoon
- Wednesday 10/30 – Los Angeles, CA at The Redwood
- Thursday 10/31 – San Diego, CA at Soda Bar
- Friday 11/1 – Berkeley, CA at The Five & Dime *
- Saturday 11/2 – Eureka, CA at Sirens Song Tavern *
- Sunday 11/3 – Portland, OR at Azoth *
With the new video for "S.L.C. The Hive," a song about the Emerald City neighborhood that houses Amazon's headquarters and compares its employees to worker bees, the band drop a furious statement of continued invigoration about their music and hard-hitting approach.
Parker discusses the song's impetus: "Lyrically it’s about the kinds of people taking over the city of Seattle. Seattle used to be super weird, kinda smelled like pee and was a haven for bizarre, queer, punk and metal artists. With the almighty Amazon/Paul Alan takeover of the city, it's now full of just some of the most vanilla people on the planet. In the song they’re described as apex machines rising to replace normal people. The South Lake Union neighborhood (SLU) is their main base in the city, and I personally used to work in a restaurant in the area and just dealt with them too much, and that's what inspired these lyrics."
An intriguing side note about the making of Homestead illuminates the lengths this band will go to for quality; namely, facing down a deadly disease in the name of creative financing. Parker elaborates:
"In this band, I'd rather spend money working with a good producer, so as the bill for the album got higher, I needed to make cash quick. I've never been one for handouts and the idea of crowdfunding wasn’t appealing, but I've always thought the money is out there if you get creative. So what I ended up doing is subjecting my body to medical testing by participating in a malaria study, in which I was given a cure and then infected with malaria. I had to give blood like 40 times over the span of two months while they tested me. It wasn't the most fun, but it helped pay for a huge chunk of our recording costs!"
Witch Ripper are anxious to get back on the road during October and November to pummel more ears and spread the magma-thick sludge as only they can.