BitchCraft, an all-female band from York, are determined not to leave you indifferent. Drawing inspiration from Babes in Toyland, their lead single, ‘Infected’, packs a punch with denser, more ceremonial riffs reminiscent of Black Sabbath and a production style that channels L7‘s raw, unadorned sound. This is a grunge revival done right: anti-glitz, introspective and genuinely authentic.
The song is built on a solid, relentless rhythmic foundation. Heavily distorted guitars take centre stage, forming a dense wall of sound that sustains the track with unwavering intensity. There are no major structural shifts; everything is built on repetition, as if the song were trapped in a loop from which it cannot escape. The musical tension builds insistently, becoming almost hypnotic.
That hypnotic quality ties in directly with the lyrics. ‘I’d kill to be her’ is the starting point for a narrative built around an obsessive experience of desire that becomes a parasitic force, erasing one’s own identity. The metaphor of infection is powerful, structuring the track as a process of progressive invasion: conscious and, most unsettlingly, voluntary. The tense, direct voice, reminiscent of Kat Bjelland, reinforces the compulsion line by line as she oscillates between regret and the compulsion to keep going.
‘Infected’ stands out for its energy and attitude, a grunge revival that is both fresh and brimming with a desire to take on the world. At a time when the genre is reclaiming its female heritage, BitchCraft are exactly where they need to be.
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