BURNING WITCHES – High Priestess Of The Night (Official Video)

A new ritual from Burning Witches

With the release of the official video for High Priestess Of The Night, Swiss heavy metal force Burning Witches sharpen their attack ahead of the arrival of their new album Inquisition, due August 22, 2025 via Napalm Records. Billed as the band’s fiercest statement to date, the single sets the tone with a surging blend of classic heavy metal, power-charged riffage, and a ritualistic mood that folds occult imagery into an anthemic chorus designed for the live stage.

For years, Burning Witches have carried the torch for traditional metal while refusing to treat it as museum music. High Priestess Of The Night makes that mission unambiguous: it’s built for sweat, volume, and congregational catharsis, a hymn to sovereignty delivered with fangs bared.

The single: sound and intent

High Priestess Of The Night opens in a blaze of harmonized guitars that nod to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal while driving forward with modern heft. The rhythm section locks into a galloping pulse—double-kick figures pushing the verses with martial precision—before the chorus unfurls into widescreen melody. It’s the kind of arrangement that rewards both fist-in-the-air immediacy and repeat listens: tight, economical, and punctuated by deft shifts in dynamics.

The twin-guitar interplay is central. You get serrated, palm-muted chugs undercut by fluid lead lines, then a solo section that balances flash and feel—phrases bend and climb rather than simply race, leaving room for the hook to breathe. The tones are dialed for cut and clarity, but there’s a lived-in grit to the distortion that keeps everything grounded in the genre’s leather-and-steel lineage.

Vocally, the track rides a commanding high register, built on sustained notes, strategic grit, and layered harmonies that give the chorus its altar-call lift. The delivery leans into the song’s ceremonial frame without sacrificing bite, threading an agile path between classic-metal grandeur and frontline aggression.

Lyrically, the piece draws power from archetype. The “High Priestess” here is not a background figure; she’s authority personified—an emblem of will, secrecy, and midnight resolve. The language invokes initiation, thresholds, and the pull of the nocturnal, aligning with the band’s longstanding fascination with mythic and occult perspectives while foregrounding themes of autonomy and defiance.

Visual language of the official video

The accompanying clip amplifies the single’s atmosphere with stark contrasts and ritual poise. Performance shots focus on precision and presence—tight framing on right-hand attack, synchronized accents, and the vocal’s dagger-point intensity—while intercut scenes build a ceremonial world through gesture and symbolism. The palette leans into dramatic shadow and flare, and the edit rides the song’s architecture: taut during the verses, opening during the chorus, and spiraling toward the solo.

Rather than literal narrative, the video opts for archetypal shorthand—sigils, silhouettes, and processional movement—mirroring the track’s invocation of power as an embodied stance. It’s less about plot than about charge: an initiation staged in three minutes, where the band’s physical performance and the clip’s iconography seal the ritual.

Video credits

Produced by: DreamFilmFactory
Director / DoP: Artem Selennov
Co-director: Alex W.
Edited by: Jovana Wolf

Into the album: Inquisition

The single’s intensity maps directly onto the wider promise of Inquisition, presented as Burning Witches’ most hard-hitting full-length yet. The title points toward judgment, ordeal, and the pressure of scrutiny—territory the band approaches not with retreat but with a sharpened arsenal. Expect rapid-fire riffing offset by melodic choruses, martial rhythms that snap to attention, and a guitar vocabulary that ranges from classic tremolo runs to harmonized ascents built for arena chant-alongs.

Production-wise, the song hints at the album’s balance: a mix engineered for clarity and punch that preserves the organic friction of strings on frets and sticks on skins. It’s a modern heavy-metal profile that refuses to sand off edge. Where some records split the difference between tradition and trend, Inquisition sounds positioned to make tradition feel newly urgent.

As ever, Burning Witches operate inside a lineage that runs through the cathedral spires of classic heavy metal—anthemic choruses, dramatic modulations, head-down riff work—while borrowing the velocity and precision associated with speed and power metal. High Priestess Of The Night stands as both gateway and gauntlet: an open invitation that doubles as a challenge to meet the band at full ferocity.

Touring: the coven convenes

Burning Witches will take the new material to stages across the United States in 2025, followed by an extensive run through Europe and the UK in 2026. The itinerary blends intimate rooms and storied clubs—ideal environments for the band’s high-voltage, no-substitute-for-volume live presence.

USA Tour 2025

08/30/25 – Pompano Beach, FL – Piper’s Pub
08/31/25 – Clearwater, FL – Road House
09/02/25 – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade
09/04/25 – Covington, KY – Madison Live
09/05/25 – Westland, MI – Token Lounge
09/06/25 – Columbus, OH – The King Of Clubs
09/07/25 – Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom
09/09/25 – Pittsburgh, PA – Crafthouse Stage & Grill
09/10/25 – Harrisburg, PA – Club XL
09/11/25 – Philadelphia, PA – City Winery
09/12/25 – Teaneck, NJ – The Debonair Music Hall
09/13/25 – New Bedford, MA – The Vault
09/14/25 – Hampton Beach, NH – Wally’s
09/17/25 – Annapolis, MD – Rams Head On Stage
09/18/25 – Virginia Beach, VA – Elevation 27
09/20/25 – Sanford, FL – West End Trading Co

EU/UK Tour 2026

09/01/26 – Milano, IT – Legend Club
10/01/26 – Obertraubling, DE – Airport
11/01/26 – Zlín, CZ – Masters Of Rock Café
13/01/26 – Rubigen, CH – Mühle Hunziken
14/01/26 – Brugg, CH – Salzhaus
15/01/26 – Basel, CH – Sudhaus
16/01/26 – Langenthal, CH – Old Capitol
17/01/26 – Zug, CH – Galvanik
18/01/26 – St. Gallen, CH – Grabenhalle
19/01/26 – Glarus, CH – Kulturzentrum Hölastei
20/01/26 – Monthey, CH – Pont Rouge
21/01/26 – Wetzikon, CH – Kulturfabrik
23/01/26 – London, UK – The Dome
24/01/26 – Birmingham, UK – The Asylum
25/01/26 – Manchester, UK – Academy 3
27/01/26 – Kortrijk, BE – DVG Club
28/01/26 – Paris, FR – Backstage By The Mill
29/01/26 – Essen, DE – Turock
30/01/26 – Kaiserslautern, DE – Kammgarn
31/01/26 – Aschaffenburg, DE – Colos Saal
01/02/26 – München, DE – Backstage Halle
03/02/26 – Nürnberg, DE – Hirsch
04/02/26 – Leipzig, DE – Hellraiser
05/02/26 – Hannover, DE – Musikzentrum
06/02/26 – Hamburg, DE – Logo
07/02/26 – Uden, NL – De Pul
08/02/26 – Heerlen, NL – Nieuwe Nor
10/02/26 – Lyon, FR – Rock N Eat
11/02/26 – Barcelona, ES – Salamandra
12/02/26 – Murcia, ES – Garaje
13/02/26 – Madrid, ES – Revi Live
14/02/26 – Vitoria, ES – Urban Rock

Where this moment lands for Burning Witches

Traditional heavy metal is in a vibrant, global upswing, and Burning Witches sit at the center of that resurgence by keeping the core materials—riff discipline, melodic clarity, dramatic stakes—front and center while insisting on present-tense energy. High Priestess Of The Night distills that approach: a song that feels instantly familiar in its DNA but unmistakably theirs in momentum and attitude.

As anticipation builds for Inquisition, the new single and video function as both oath and omen: a pledge to the faithful and a warning flare to anyone who underestimates how vital, and how visceral, classic-styled metal can still be.

Release and availability

Inquisition arrives on August 22, 2025 via Napalm Records, with pre-orders available now through official channels. The High Priestess Of The Night video is out worldwide—turn it up, and prepare for the inquisition.