To the lucky fans in the States, this is nothing new – the Nashville band has been teasing the release of their latest album House of Mirrors via encoded tarot cards shared around their latest shows. Now it’s official for the whole world. Their 7th studio album and first with drummer Christian Powers is set to launch on May 29th. Paired with a European tour, there’s never been a better time to be an ATW fan, as they conquer stage after stage after stage.
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 fictitious 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.
– Charles Michael Parks, Jr.
House of Mirrors takes its name from the lyrics of ‘Saturn Song’, the final track of the album. “Found a way out / through the doll house of mirrors / now back to my old ways“. The song has been transformed to a full band slammer from the heartfelt acoustic piece by vocalist and bassist Charles Michael Parks, Jr. under his Jr Parks solo project.
“We did more writing and pre-production for House of Mirrors than any other album we’ve ever done,” guitarist Ben McLeod notes of the album tracked in January 2025 at Blackbird Studios, Nashville TN, with producer Eddie Spear (Zach Bryan, Jesse Welles). “We loved working with Eddie when he engineered Sleeping Through The War [released in 2017]. He was heavily involved from the pre-production stage.”
And just like in their Abbey Road sessions for Nothing as the Ideal, the gear they had available there shaped the sound of the whole album. “We used some really old equipment. I wanted my guitar sound to be powerful on every song and it’s slamming the whole time.”
That hugeness of the sound comes through loud and clear on both ‘Red Rocking Chair’ (released in February) and the freshly released ‘Starting Line’. There’s maybe no better Witches song to convert the unbelievers: it’s groovy and heavy like their best classics, with a heartrending verse and raging chorus.
![All Them Witches - Starting Line [Official Visualizer]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bqGliUWSLCQ/hqdefault.jpg "All Them Witches New Album coming May 29th! 2")
“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.” Starting off with this nod to their 2015 instrumental track ‘Mellowing’, off of Dying Surfer Meets His Maker, the new single explores the fear and anger of seemingly losing it all and what it means to fight tooth and nail to salvage it.
‘Take away my money, Take away all my time / I cannot fall back to the starting line’
In April 2024, just days before they were set to head out on tour, Robby Staebler, drummer and co-founder of All Them Witches, announced his departure from the band. In the ripples of panic and confusion that spread across their fanbase, Parks and McLeod debated whether to even keep the band going. But one phone call later, in stepped Christian Powers of Fortune Child.
At the time, we weren’t planning on keeping this going. We wanted to honor those dates that were already booked. After the second night, we felt like there was this new life in the band. We were reawakened and intrigued. There were still things that we wanted to do. We had something to prove. The album initially sprouted from the positivity of being excited about playing again.
Ben McLeod
“It turned out to be a breath of fresh air,” Parks concurs. “Through a little bit of suffering, we came out on the brighter side. It re-sparked our love for performing and writing.”
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. More information over on https://www.allthemwitches.org.
House of Mirrors releases on May 29th. Album preorders are already open on their website: https://allthemwitches.tmstor.es
“House of Mirrors” Tracklist
- Red Rocking Chair
- Culling Line
- Aethernet
- Hold Up, Say What?
- Go-Getter
- Starting Line
- Turn On the Light
- Angel on the Wayside
- The Welterweight
- Saturn Song
Tickets for their UK/European are available at https://www.allthemwitches.org/tour