Seattle-based metal outfit WITCH RIPPER have released their third full-length album, ‚Through the Hourglass‘, on April 10, 2026, via Magnetic Eye Records. The record arrives alongside a sweeping US headlining tour and marks a bold new chapter in the band’s evolving sonic narrative.Seattle, Washington’s WITCH RIPPER have officially released their third full-length album, ‚Through the Hourglass‘, through Magnetic Eye Records. The record dropped on April 10, 2026, and arrives as the band prepares to headline an extensive run of US dates throughout the spring and early summer.
On ‚Through the Hourglass‘, WITCH RIPPER deliver what may be the most ambitious and fully realised work of their career. The seven-track album showcases the quartet’s command of melodic heaviness, weaving together elements of progressive rock, sludge, and hard rock with a confidence that places them in the same sonic territory as MASTODON, BARONESS, and HIGH ON FIRE, while drawing equally from the bombastic rock of QUEEN and DAVID BOWIE and the modern progressive sweep of COHEED AND CAMBRIA and MUSE.
The album continues the science fiction narrative begun on WITCH RIPPER’s sophomore effort, ‚The Flight after the Fall‘ (2023), in which the central protagonist’s attempt to find peace in death by diving into a black hole ends in failure. ‚Through the Hourglass‘ picks up the story as the character awakens in a world stripped of time, confronting a dark presence from his past.
Recorded and mixed by Matt Bayles at Studio Litho and EXES Audio in Seattle, and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audio Siege Studios in Portland, the album features cover art by Chris Panatier and layout by Lukasz Jaszak. Guest vocalist Irene Barber appears on closing track ‚The Spiral Eye‘.
Founded in Seattle in 2012, WITCH RIPPER built their reputation through a self-titled EP and the debut full-length ‚Homestead‘ (2018) before breaking through internationally with ‚The Flight after the Fall‘. The band has shared stages with MONOLORD, CONAN, SLIPKNOT, GOJIRA, and KHEMMIS, among others.
A European tour in support of the new record is also being planned.