Häxan - 'White Noise'
Album Review
It’s hard to believe that this is Häxan’s debut album as it feels like the Welsh girls have been on the circuit for ages now. It’s been worth waiting for though and maybe the timing is right; they’ve got a quality settled line-up; Wales seems to be ‘The Seattle’ of the NWOCR scene and they managed to get it completed just after lockdown and released at a quiet time in the market.
There’s nothing quiet about the songs though. We gave the bombastic single “Skeletons” a very positive review in May and it sounds even better with repeat plays and should be one of the songs of the year. The rest of the album is consistently good too and producer Todd Campbell has done a great job in capturing their classic all-girl power trio sound.
The punchy ‘Damned If You Do’ is a fast starter, followed by the more even-paced “Killing Time” which has that classic Motorhead chug. There is a nice change of pace throughout the set with plenty of light and shade. “Grave Digger” is another that stands out – it’s not doom but it does get a bit Sabbathy on the guitar right at the end.
“Black Sheep” is a bad-girl ballad but it’s got grit and (lady) balls in a Lzzy kind of way and that’s obviously a good thing. Songs like this should make Häxan the favourite child of the ‘Daughters of Girlschool’ generation rather than the black sheep of the family, for sure.
The hammy, Hammer horror of “Living Dead” is a fun way to finish and, in their own words, it’s ‘un-f*cking forgettable’ - just like the rest of the album.