It’s been over a year since Nashville-bred band All Them Witches announced the recording of their highly anticipated new album and today, we see the release of their first new single in over three years, ‘Red Rocking Chair’. The bluegrass staple is here reimagined as a ballad, sung gently over sparse instrumentation, before exploding into a momentous bass-heavy chorus which has left no barricade unshaken and no tears uncried since they’ve started adding it to their live setlist in 2025.
Opener “Red Rocking Chair“– a reworking of a bluegrass standard made famous by Doc Watson –begins like Mark Langean at his most haunted, before pulling itself up to its full height via the doomiest of riffs, then retreats again, warped violin wrapping around gently pulsing guitar.
Hopefully, it retains some of our core stoner doom fans. I wrote the riff and the wiggly verse part with the intention that Parks would actually sing those ‘Red Rocking Chair’ lyrics over them. He didn’t know it at first, but he wasn’t going to be allowed to say, ‘No’.– Ben McLeod
I’ve actually been listening to ‘Red Rocking Chair’ since I was a kid. Usually, it’s done in a traditional bluegrass style. Ben had the riff, and it made me start singing those lyrics. We used to play bluegrass at after-show parties, in stairwells, and on the streets sometimes. So ‘Red Rocking Chair’ ties into our old time-y rough touring days.– Charles Michael Parks, Jr
In the States, the lyrics of ‘Red Rocking Chair’ were often used in the intro of their similarly heavy stoner song ‘Swallowed by the Sea’, from their second album, “Lightning at the Door“.
It also marks their first official release with drummer Christian Powers (also of Fortune Child, and their first under the BMG label.
All Them Witches have unleashed their seventh album, “House of Mirrors”, and guitarist Ben McLeod and singer-bassist Charles Michael Parks, Jr. are giving “Heavy Consequence” an inside look at the LP with an exclusive track-by-track breakdown.
Fans had always asked about it, and I thought it should finally be its own song.– Ben McLeod
“Culling Line” unfolds with a sense of enormous dread, drifting from an eerie vocal introduction that sounds like an import from 1920s Appalachia to the kind of solo David Gilmour might dream up if he were impersonating Carlos Santana.
Along with the album release, All Them Witches have released a visualizer for the new single “Hold Up, Say What.”
The song release pairs with a kaleidoscopic music video (filmed by Dylan Handley), featuring live shots from their 2025 European tour at the Bataclan, Paris, and O2 Forum Kentish Town, London.
The band have always looked to traditional folk songs and imagery for inspiration, like ‘Blacksnake Blues’ and their ‘Coyote Woman’ trilogy, with the mournful love song RRC now joining their discography.
All Them Witches is Ben McLeod on lead guitar, Charles Michael Parks, Jr. on bass/vocals, Christian Powers on drums and Allan Van Cleave on keys and violin.
“House of Mirrors” Track by Track:
“Red Rocking Chair”
Parks: “‘I’ve actually been listening to ‘Red Rocking Chair’ since I was a kid. Usually, it’s done in a traditional bluegrass style. Ben had the riff, and it made me start singing those lyrics. We used to play bluegrass at after-show parties, in stairwells, and on the streets sometimes. So, ‘Red Rocking Chair’ ties into our old time-y rough touring days.”
Ben: “Hopefully, it retains some of our core stoner doom fans. I wrote the riff and the wiggly verse part with the intention that Parks would actually sing those ‘Red Rocking Chair’ lyrics over them. He didn’t know it at first, but he wasn’t going to be allowed to say, ‘No’ [Laughs]. Live, we play our song ‘Swallowed By The Sea’ every now and then, and Parks would sub out the ‘Red Rocking Chair’ lyrics at shows. Fans had always asked about it, and I thought it should finally be its own song.”
“Culling Line”
Parks: “You’re casting off things that don’t serve you or slow you down. In the simplest terms, a ‘Culling’ is a thinning of the herd. I wrote it on my bass guitar at home. I always joke that bass is the least interesting instrument to sit around and play alone. This was one of those earworm riffs that worked though.”
Ben: “After Parks wrote the music and lyrics, we came up with the chord changes during the solo section as a band. We didn’t have an ending for it, but I was learning the main riff by playing it constantly. I kept repeating it over and over, and everyone agreed it should be the ending. We were definitely going for Black Sabbath.”
“Aethernet”
Parks: “Allan wrote the chord structures for this one. It’s the most straightforward bluesy song on the record. It might be the most fun tune as well.”
“Hold Up, Say What”
Ben: “There’s a beautiful juxtaposition between the fast verses and this beautiful dropout bridge. We try to take advantage of any opportunity for Allan to put violin on a song. I also think it’s one of our best production pieces as a band.”
Parks: “I’d been messing around with the riff for a long time. The words were stream-of-consciousness. They’re like different characters in my mind. It’s a conversational song where you get two or three voices arguing back and forth.”
“Go-Getter”
Parks: “We had a demo of it. A day or two before I was supposed to go to Nashville to record, ‘Go-Getter’ still didn’t have any words. It was going to be an instrumental, but I sat there for thirty minutes, wrote some words, and the demo ended up being my favorite from the whole session. We didn’t do a lot to ‘Go-Getter’ in the studio. I re-recorded vocals. Ben maybe re-recorded some guitar. Other than that, it’s pretty much the demo. It’s a strange and sad non-heavy song.”
Ben: “The demo originally started out as a guitar piece I’d written. We were spitting out tons of ideas when everybody came to Florida for a writing session. I asked the other guys what they thought of it, and the general consensus was they liked it. We tracked a quick demo—which we used most of. Eddie mixed it. The only thing Parks re-did were the vocals. It’s beautiful and very sensitive. It’s definitely the softest track on the record. I think Parks is really proud of the lyrics too.”
“Starting Line”
Parks: “We’ve had the song forever, but we could never make it work. For some reason, it just worked this time. ‘Starting Line’ and ‘Culling Line’ are sister songs even though they don’t have the same musical makeup. ‘Culling Line’ is about leaving things that don’t serve you; ‘Starting Line’ is about finding the balance of self-preservation and vanity.”
Ben: “It turned out great, thanks to Eddie. We crushed the recording, but it was totally different before Eddie came into the process. Parks and I had tracked the first and third verse alone—just us. We were both aiming into the same microphone. Parks is singing into the same mic, and it’s also picking up our acoustic guitars.”
“Turn the Light On”
Parks: “That one is cool. I hope we play it live this tour. It’s one of those fever dream moments, because it showed up all at once for me. When this happens, you’ve got to figure out what the track means to you. Whoever the main character is in the song leaves home with an idea of what’s out there, but quickly learns it’s not that way.”
Ben: “All of us loved ‘Turn the Light On’ when Parks sent it. It’s like a catchy pop song, and it turns into this ultimate sludge doom tune by the time it’s over. As soon as you think you’re going down a path in any one of these songs, we change it up. That’s a common musical theme for us.”
“Angel on the Wayside”
Parks: “Ben had the riff forever. We’d been trying to work on it for a while, but we couldn’t seem to get it together. It was a good choice for this album. It’s a little more upbeat with an old Hendrix vibe. It’s a Ben song.”
Ben:“‘Angel on the Wayside’ is us doing our sixties-Hendrix-revival-thing. There’s a fuzz riff. It’s really basic with everyone in the same room and tons of bleed. We were just letting it rip.”
“Welterweight”
Parks: “I wrote ‘Welterweight’ and ‘Saturn Song’ around the same time. When I’m home, I mainly play acoustic guitar. It’s easier for songwriting, but translating it to bass later is weird. You spend a lot of time getting these rhythms with finger-picking, and you end up cutting them out when you bring in other musicians. I’ve heard the word ‘Welterweight’ my whole life. My grandfather was a Welterweight boxing champion in Alabama. This title has been ringing in my head for a long time, and it found its way to a song.”
Ben: “It’s our ballad, and it’s an awesome well-written song from Parks. Eddie was trying to get Allan to do a piano intro, but Allan was playing too well because he’s classically trained. Eddie was like, ‘No, just play’ [Laughs]!”
“Saturn Song”
Parks: “A lot of these songs are about leaving home, facing expectations, and carving your own way into this world as messed up and strange as it is. Your wealth of knowledge grows, and dealing with the burden of this knowledge is really intense. The album is essentially about dealing with fictious roles that are placed onto you by the world, things you’re born into that aren’t necessarily who you are as an individual, meeting and breaking expectations, and following your own moral compass.”
Ben: “It turned out to be one of my favorites. It’s such a groove. The guitar is sparse on the verses. There’s tons of room, and it gets interesting in the end. I wanted it to sound like something you’d hear on Real Emotional Trash by Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks.”
A release date for their latest album is yet to be announced.
The Fat Angel Sings 