Courtesy Stian Andersen
Norwegian witches cloaked in corpse paint and dispelling primitive black metal are laying waste to North American audiences for the first time in history, as occult-obsessed feminist trio Witch Club Satan makes its inaugural trek across this part of the world. And many are already succumbing to their sonic spells.
“Our first impression is that the U.S. crowd is really present and vibrant and loud, less shy,” says guitarist-vocalist Nikoline Spjelkavik.
“Several people came to us after the shows and said this is cathartic for them. I think it was good timing, even though people say it’s strange times to come visit,” says drummer-vocalist Johanna Holt Kleive. “For us, it feels like the right time, and our energy really captivated the audience because of the circumstances surrounding it.
“They make a lot of mosh pits, too,” she continues. “Sometimes, because our show is so visual, high-speed metal and loud, people are very attentive because it feels like they don’t want to miss out on what’s happening on stage. Everyone’s been dancing with us so far.”
The witches bring the Founding of The North American Coven tour to Denver on Wednesday, June 10, for a ritual at Bluebird Theater. L.A. snuff-pop duo Patriarchy is providing support.
Pulling from the subgenre’s raw roots, Witch Club Satan makes music familiar to the homeland and its most infamous cultural export, fueled by satanism, church-burnings and murder (the ’90s were wild over there), but with more modern sensibilities. Since 2021, the group hasn’t been afraid to take on sociopolitical topics, including racism, environmentalism and the Palestinian genocide, which is more punk than most of today’s black metal.
“It’s never been an explicit political genre, and that’s also something we did find fascinating, like how can we pump up or turn up the punk elements and bring that back?” Kleive explains.
The coven, which formed in theater school (so “Suspiria”), caught the attention of Mayhem bassist and co-founder Necrobutcher, who heard an early demo and immediately christened Witch Club Satan vital to the scene.
Then, the 2024 self-titled debut, produced by Satyricon/Celtic Frost guitarist Anders Odden and released on International Women’s Day, officially marked Witch Club’s arrival. The gory short for the hit song “Fresh Blood, Fresh Pussy” won “Best Bizarre” music video at the 2025 Berlin Music Video Awards, after receiving a Music Video of the Year nomination at the Norwegian equivalent to the Grammys a year earlier. Warning: It is NSFW in all its blood and boobs excess.
Recent singles “You Wildflower” and “The Kids Will Kill Us” are unfettered frenzies railing against moral decay, inherited violence and collective denial. For metalheads who know how much incel energy is whirling within the dude-dominated black-metal scene, it’s refreshing to see, and hear, such witchy rage.
“We feel like Americans now are really ready for the political dimension. There’s a lot of anger in the system,” Spjelkavik says. “Somehow, we feel that the music resonates better in circumstances like this with the Americans and it’s quite nice for us too to feel a real energy transaction. It’s encouraging and gives everyone hope, both us and the audience.”
It’s about inspiring change and action, or to at least make you think, through collective catharsis: “It is a big explosion, the whole thing. When it sinks in it’s quite a privilege to stand on that stage and express yourself in that way,” says bassist-vocalist Victoria Røising.
“You can use it to empathize,” Kleive adds.
Maybe joining such a coven isn’t as sinister as it first sounds after all.
“I think it’s about the anger and the rage that is so kept in and oozes out in this passive aggressive way,” Spjelkavik says. “It’s the cleanest way to speak up about things because what this is really engaging is anger, the feeling of something is unfair. I think our reaction to that is very much a burning rage. With that you can use that and form it into something else and aggression helps us, or violence.
“When you see something is wrong or feel injustice, you often react with anger,” she concludes. “This is the thing we’re curious about digging into, like, ‘Why are we feeling that way?’ It doesn’t necessarily mean we create anger for the sake of it. We’re just curious about ideas we can discuss further.”
All hail Witch Club Satan!
Witch Club Satan, with Patriarchy, 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 10, Bluebird Theater, 3317 East Colfax Ave. Tickets are $50.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.westword.com ’
