Ball of Wax 51 Songs: Nachthexen – “NightWitch III/draft”

It’s been a while since I gushed about local guitar hero Bill Horist, and even longer since he graced a volume of Ball of Wax with his guitarical prowess, so I’m excited that both are happening again right now! I’ve seen and heard (and loved) Bill in many different settings over the years, from solo prepared-guitar shredding sessions to full-band skronkfests with the likes of Ghidra and Nervewheel, to his gorgeous acoustic ensemble album Covalent Lodge, but his Nachthexen project represents something new. I believe this is somewhat of a one-man multi-tracked sketch for a project to be deployed with a full band of the sort of brilliant instrumentalists Bill pals around with on a regular basis, but even in this rough-ish format, it is a thing of majesty, an epic and triumphant piece that’s not quite stoner rock, not quite jazz, not quite prog, but all of those and much more. And he even sings on it! Beautifully! I could not be more honored that Bill entrusted this diamond in the rough to Ball of Wax, or more thrilled at the prospect of this project seeing proper fruition. Somebody give this man a pile of money to make this record, stat!