Let There Be Witchery

While many musicians felt paralysed by the pandemic and its lack of touring and recording opportunities, Jamie “Athenar” Walters completed three full Midnight albums. That’s just one of the many advantages of being a one-man band—Walters plays all the instruments in the studio himself and then enlists touring musicians for the road. “I recorded Let There Be Witchery first, almost exactly two years ago, so that’s why it’s coming out first,” Walters tells Apple Music. “I wanted to keep everything in order.” In keeping with Midnight’s two-decade tradition of sleazy speed metal and lascivious rock ’n’ roll, Let There Be Witchery channels Venom and Motörhead while extolling the virtues of sex and Satan. “Maybe it’s a bad motto, but mine is, ‘If it’s a challenge, fuck it,’” Walters says. “Whatever comes out, it happens pretty naturally. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Below, he discusses each track on the album. “Telepathic Nightmare” “When I made demos of these tunes, this didn’t sound like an opener to me. But in the studio, the delivery of the vocals was just so commanding that it seemed like the first lines of the album. It just comes out and socks you in the face. It’s got kind of an ominous intro, and then it busts into these Voivod chords, which I thought was unique for a Midnight opener. It was one of those surprises that turned out a lot better than what I intended it to be.” “Frothing Foulness” “What can be said that the title doesn't already expose? All these songs have a certain general theme running through them—carnal pleasures, and the good and bad that they bring. That’s the theme of the album, but here it’s all laid out. You could say ‘Frothing Foulness’ has to do with elements of the human body.” “In Sinful Secrecy” “The way the chords are in this, you could turn it into a pop song. It opens up with the vocal line ‘In sinful secrecy’, which was my sleazeball attempt at ‘In my dreams, you’re still the same’ by Dokken, which is one of my fa