Bell Witch (band)

Lore & Background

Bell Witch was formed in 2010 by Dylan Desmond and Adrian Guerra. The group has no lead guitarist. In 2011, they released a four-track demo through several small record labels. Following the demo's success, they created their first two studio albums, Longing (2012) and Four Phantoms (2015). In 2016, drummer and co-founding member Adrian Guerra died, shortly after being replaced by Jesse Shreibman on drums.

Less than a year later, Bell Witch released their third album, Mirror Reaper (2017), to critical acclaim. The album features vocals from Guerra left over from the Four Phantoms sessions and acts as a tribute to him. Mirror Reaper comprises one 84-minute song of the same name and appeared on a number of year-end lists. After performing vocals on the second half of Mirror Reaper, Erik Moggridge of Aerial Ruin collaborated with Bell Witch on their fourth album, Stygian Bough Volume 1 (2020).

On April 18, 2023, the band announced that their new album Future's Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate, part of a trilogy, would be released the next Friday (April 21). On the day of release, they played the entire album at Roadburn Festival.

Reader's Guide

Bell Witch's significance lies in their distinctive approach to doom metal, notably operating without a lead guitarist and creating extended, monolithic compositions. Their third album, Mirror Reaper, stands as a landmark in the genre: a single 84-minute track that served as a tribute to deceased co-founder Adrian Guerra, incorporating his pre-recorded vocals. The album's critical acclaim and national media coverage brought the band wider recognition. Their subsequent work, including collaborations with Aerial Ruin and the planned trilogy beginning with Future's Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate, demonstrates a continued commitment to ambitious, immersive song structures. The band's legacy is tied to their ability to transform personal tragedy into profound musical statements, while maintaining a consistent sound rooted in slow, heavy riffs and atmospheric depth.

Did You Know?

• Bell Witch has no lead guitarist.
• Their album Mirror Reaper consists of a single 84-minute song.
• Drummer Adrian Guerra died in 2016 and was replaced by Jesse Shreibman.
• Mirror Reaper features vocals from Guerra recorded during the Four Phantoms sessions.

Formation & the Architecture of a Two-Piece

Bell Witch emerged from Seattle, Washington, in 2010 when Dylan Desmond and Adrian Guerra joined forces to build a doom metal project with a deliberately stripped-down architecture. Notably, the group operates without a lead guitarist, a structural choice that shapes their dense, atmospheric sound from the very first note. Desmond handles vocals and bass while Guerra provided drums and additional vocal textures, creating a lean but sonically rich foundation. Their first public output arrived in 2011 as a four-track demo, distributed through a handful of small record labels. That modest release proved to be a catalyst, generating enough momentum and interest to propel the duo toward recording proper studio material. The result was Longing, released in 2012 through Profound Lore Records, followed three years later by Four Phantoms in 2015. Both albums established Bell Witch as a serious voice within the doom metal landscape, laying a foundation that would carry them through the profound challenges and creative triumphs of the years that followed.

Grief, Tribute, and the 84-Minute Mirror Reaper

The death of co-founder Adrian Guerra in 2016 cast a long shadow over Bell Witch's future. Guerra had already been replaced behind the drums by Jesse Shreibman, yet his passing still struck the band with devastating force. Less than a year after his death, Bell Witch delivered Mirror Reaper in 2017, an album that functioned as both a creative statement and a direct tribute to their fallen friend. The record incorporated vocal performances by Guerra that had been left over from the Four Phantoms recording sessions, weaving his voice into the new material as a haunting, persistent presence. Structurally, Mirror Reaper is a single, unbroken 84-minute composition bearing the album's title, an ambitious choice that demanded sustained, immersive listening. The album earned significant critical acclaim, landing on numerous year-end lists and drawing substantial national coverage. It marked the moment Bell Witch transitioned from a respected underground act to a band commanding wider attention, all while carrying the weight of profound personal loss.

The Aerial Ruin Partnership and Expanding the Sound

Bell Witch's willingness to open their creative process to outside voices became a defining feature of their later work. The most prominent example is their partnership with Erik Moggridge of Aerial Ruin, a fellow doom metal artist. Moggridge first contributed by performing vocals during the second half of Mirror Reaper in 2017, a role that naturally led to deeper collaboration. In 2020, the two projects joined forces for Stygian Bough Volume 1, a full album credited to both Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin and released through Profound Lore Records. This was not a one-off experiment; the partnership proved durable and fruitful, culminating in Stygian Bough Volume 2 in 2025. Meanwhile, the core duo of Desmond and Shreibman continued to evolve their own material independently. The band's discography thus reflects a dual trajectory: their own studio albums progressing alongside a sustained creative dialogue with Moggridge, each collaboration enriching the other and broadening the sonic palette of what a two-piece doom metal group could achieve.

Trilogies, Marathon Tracks, and the Roadburn Debut

Bell Witch has consistently favored grand, ambitious formats over conventional album structures, and their 2023 release exemplifies this philosophy. On April 18, 2023, the band announced that Future's Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate would arrive just three days later, on April 21. The title itself signals a larger narrative: the album is the first installment of a planned trilogy, suggesting a multi-part story arc that stretches across future releases. What made the launch particularly remarkable was the band's decision to perform the entire album live at Roadburn Festival on the very day of its release, a bold move that merged the debut of new material with a full concert experience in real time. This approach reflects a broader pattern in Bell Witch's career, from the 84-minute single track of Mirror Reaper to the multi-volume Stygian Bough series. The band treats each release as a complete event, an artistic statement meant to be experienced in its fullness rather than sampled in fragments.