You can trust Louder
Psychedelic rockers are two a penny these days. Whether it’s pot-addled beardos worshipping at the altar of Black Sabbath, or Kevin Parker’s latest Tame Impala offshoots in Western Australia, everyone’s been getting their freak on.
Based in Nashville – but wholly removed from the countrified ‘contemporary Nashville scene’ – All Them Witches freak out with more power and originality than most. But on 2018’s ATW album they seemed to fall back to earth. Which was fine, but a little lukewarm for those of us enthralled by the otherworldly delights of their previous records, (especially 2017’s boundary-pushing Sleeping Through The War).
Perhaps they just needed a change of scene, judging by the resounding success of Nothing As The Ideal.
Comprising eight enveloping tracks, including two almost-ten-minute epics, it feels as much like a film soundtrack as it does a hooky rock’n’roll album.
From Saturnine & Iron Jaw’s haunting ambience and chugging Led Zeppelin guitars, to the trippy, pitch-black tones of See You Next Fall and the cathartic finale Rats In Ruin, it’s a dark, enticing feast for the senses, with one foot in ancient times and the other in some far-off dimension.

Polly is deputy editor at Classic Rock magazine, where she writes and commissions regular pieces and longer reads (including new band coverage), and has interviewed rock's biggest and newest names. She also contributes to Louder, Prog and Metal Hammer and talks about songs on the 20 Minute Club podcast. Elsewhere she's had work published in The Musician, delicious. magazine and others, and written biographies for various album campaigns. In a previous life as a women's magazine junior she interviewed Tracey Emin and Lily James – and wangled Rival Sons into the arts pages. In her spare time she writes fiction and cooks.