Vol #197: Artist Showcase, An Interview with Atomic Witch
Rustbelt Rock Review
By: Z.M. Delgado
Rustbeltrockreview.com
Volume #197: Artist Showcase, An Interview with Atomic Witch
June 28th 2025
Rock & Roll City Studios 5500 Walworth Ave, Cleveland, OH 44102
It was a hot, muggy day in Cleveland when I rolled into the parking lot of Rock & Roll City Studios. While it is home to many acts, R&RCS just happens to house one of Northeast Ohio’s most notorious acts: Atomic Witch. This is a band, who we were first introduced to in RbRR #22, when they delivered a raucous performance at Cleveland’s Grog Shop. I reviewed their album, “Crypt of Sleepless Malice” in RbRR #41 and I interviewed them in RbRR #43. Since then I have seen them perform many times, including the now legendary CD release party. (RbRR #44) With all that history between he RbRR and Atomic Witch, I thought it was high time that I checked in with the boys and found out what they had brewing in their cauldron of cacophony. There was no better time to do so then now, as Atomic Witch is gearing up to release yet another terrifying chapter in their discography: “Death Etiquette.” The album will be released on Redefining Darkness Records on August 16th, 2025. Once again they have acquired the talents of Chad Keith Helsinki for their album art. I was met by the boys in the parking and together we migrated into the bands designated jam space. Black walls, posters, piles of gear and mountains of merch and of course, five musicians. The stage was set for me to do my thing.
First things first though, we had some business to conduct as I sent a bag of gummies around the room for ingestion. The boys reciprocated with a bowl pack and soon enough we were in a much better head space for creative discussion. We started with some light-hearted bullshitting about subjects varying from their bag of “Dead Man’s Weed,” to the TV show “Supernatural” and the movie “How High.” Eventually we did get down to business and I set upon them with my notebook of questions.
My first inquiry was a simple one, or so I thought, “How long did the album take to create?” I got a long and complicated answer, with multiple band members chiming in to add to the discussion. What I gathered was the overall process was much shorter this time around, when compared to their previous release “Crypt of Sleepless Malice.” That being said, Guitarist Jonah explained “It felt slower because we already had these songs written for the most part by the time the last album came out.” They went on to tell me about the recording process. With their last album, they tracked the record themselves, and then sent it out to be mixed and mastered. With this album they wanted to try something different. They shopped demos of two new songs to multiple engineers, then compared the finished mixes. After careful examination, they chose the most desirable tracks, which would go on to become the “Charmed by Darkness” EP. After this process was complete the band ultimately decided to go with the battle tested methods of Noah at Mercinary Studios. The band raved about the entire experience of recording at Mercinary, from the creative environment and relaxed atmosphere, to the convenient access to a “sick chicken place.” While I never got a definitive answer as to “How Long the album took to make” I did get some cool insights into the process which was better than any short simple response.
Next I asked, “What made you choose the title: “Death Etiquette?” Greg explained “I think we may have described it as the culmination of these songs” is “how you should act in death.” Apparently the title was initially “Funeral Etiquette” but that was tweaked by Guitarist/Vocalist Jesse into it’s current form, which the boys agreed “hit harder.” Greg elaborated further saying he feels the title is a “great descriptor of what you’re about to get into.” Having heard the album, I can’t help but to agree with the man on this point.
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Delving further into the music, I asked “How has your sound evolved?” After a few moments to reflect on the question Greg answered, “I think we got more intentional.” “Because I feel like we are very adventurous. When anyone brings anything to the table, we hear it. We’re like, “Let’s check it out.’” Meanwhile, “everyone’s ability to write together just got better, as well as the understanding of each other and of how they play.” “There’s an even deeper collaboration I feel, when it comes to the music. It’s more deliberate with the approaches we take and we’re defining our sound every time.” Nick added that “There are a couple more ‘techy’ songs on this, but in general, I feel like the songs were written more just jamming in a room together.” “If anything, I feel like [Crypt of Sleepless Malice] was a little more technical and complicated. This one feels a little more streamlined and Thrashy.” Piggybacking off of Nick’s comments, Jonah added, “some of the songwriting on our end got a little more straight forward.” “I feel like me and Jesse were discovering a lot of tricks we like to do… certain types of harmonies or whatever, on the first album. We were kind of utilizing them for the first time. Now we’re able to pull those out whenever and so then we’re kind of refining that core sound more.” That being said, Jonah admits “things also, in some cases are faster, heavier and kind of like weirder.” “We like to disorient,” he explained. My follow up question was “How has the sound stayed the same?” Jesse fielded this one answering, “What stayed the same was ‘Death Thrash,’ you know?” “Sonically for me, trying to write riffs... I’m trying to get something that makes you feel… I want a riff to feel like you took too big of a bong rip.”
I wanted to get an update on Atomic Witches influences. I wondered what portions of our zeitgeist were creeping into the band’s creative process. Musically Jesse told me that “the search for weird progressive Thrash never ends.” “It starts at Coroner, but what else is there?” “You gotta really dig deep, and go through a bunch of wacky demos and weird releases of bands from… you know, like Denmark in 1990.” “Like Hexenhaus. Late 80’s, early 90’s technical Thrash. Very shreddy. Very wacky. Weird Vocals. That’s what I’ve been listening to.” Jonah expressed his affection of the band “New World Man” who he described as “almost like a hardcore band, but they have really scrawkey weird riffs.”
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We got into the lyrics a little bit along with the inspirations and meanings behind the songs. For this portion of the interview, Greg did most of the talking. “Morgue Rat” originated as a news article he had read. It was “about this woman that was high on meth that was found with a bunch of corpses in a hearse.” “She worked at a funeral home and was just having sex with these corpses and, went on a two day bender with them.” “It’s great. ‘Morgue Rat is a true story.” “Flesh and Chrome” was, at least in part inspired by “The Terminator” movie franchise. Jonah explained “That’s where kind of the phrase, at least for me, came from. The idea that when the Terminator gets half his face ripped off… Flesh and Chrome. That whole visual.” Greg continued to explain that “Worms and Dirt” is about “having a whole bunch of bodies and just consuming so much of them that there is nothing left but worms and dirt.” The whole band chimed in hilariously when we discussed “Dream Rot.” Eventually Greg divulged that it is about “rotting from the inside out, while dreaming.” However you need to combine that concept, with an amusing inside joke from the band to get the whole picture on this song title. Moving on Greg concisely explained, “’Sabbath Breaker’ is just an intense anti-religious song.” While “Death Edging (Come to the Light)” is about “creeping so close to death and then pulling away because of that high.” “This song is more about chasing a buzz.” “’Skelecidal’ is just like, wanting to die so bad that you want to kill your ghost-self.” “You’re like, I’m already dead, but I want to be beyond death.” And finally “’Vicious Mistress’ is about trying to raise a ghost to bang, but then that ghost just ruins your life.”
The band has no immediate touring plans, though they are open to the right opportunity, when it comes along. We jokingly discussed the bands lack of touring plans with mock hurdles caused by fictional fame. Greg suggested we title the artilce: “A band too big to tour: Atomic Witch.” In all seriousness I do look forward to seeing Atomic Witch in the very near future. Of course, they will be playing around Cleveland and the surrounding region in support of “Death Etiquette.” Those future gigs will naturally be kicked off by the Album Release party. That event will go down Saturday August 16th at the Beachland Tavern (15711 Waterloo Rd, Cleveland, OH 44110 ) with support from Noxim, Graveripper and Radian.
After that we just kind of bullshitted about the room. Just old buddies shooting the shit. We talked about the bands recent live shows. They told me that “Worms and Dirt” and “Dream Rot” are the only songs off the new album they have yet to play live. According to the band, the new material has been going over very well with audiences. We had a lengthy reminiscence of the last Album release party and wondered if the next one can possibly match it’s intensity or its levels of inebriation. Here I also learned that mythical Bass player Rolling Thunder was first courted by Atomic Witch at that show we discussed earlier, in RbRR #22. After all this gum flapping, I excused myself so the boys could get down to the business of jamming. They need their practice after all, they have a big show coming up fast. So there you have it. My afternoon with Atomic Witch went well. I got to see my old friends, had some laughs and learned a lot about their new album. It was a lot of fun. On that note I’ll bring this edition to a close. Stay tuned for my next visit from the Witch, when I breakdown “Death Etiquette.”
Until next time, Rock on, Rustbelt,
-Z.M. Delgado
Rustbelt Rock Review
Rustbeltrockreview.com
7/1-7/2/2025
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/ATOMICWITCH/
https://zackolantern.com/f/rbrr-vol-43-artist-showcase-an-interview-with-atomic-witch
https://zackolantern.com/f/rbrr-vol-44-atomic-witch-album-release-party
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