Witchcraft

Falsely labeled a doom metal act by Wikipedia, this Swedish quartet has too many surprises hidden up its wizard sleeves to be stuck in any single subgenre. Don’t doubt that Witchcraft, which has been hair-farming since 2000, packs plenty of spellbinding hoodoo on its latest disc. The signature track “If Crimson Was Your Color” flaunts its first guitar solo eight seconds in, and a moment later vocalist Magnus Pelander is waxing melodramatic “within the darkest hour, when the dragon releases its power,” throwing a little “whoa” in there for good measure. The eternal cosmic void. Giant fire-breathing lizards. Steely riffage with a bluesy swagger. The ’70s live!

Rather than overkill, though, the group wisely gets over on what now sounds like good taste. The solos are clean, mean and judicious, and those drum fills that clatter like Odin’s brass balls can easily segue into jazzy subtleties. An occasional prog indulgence (is that a synth on “Samaritan Burden”?) is only the bridge to the more ambitious song structure of the 11-minute title track, in which these metal devotees submit to the ballad faeries as convincingly as they sketch pentagrams.

Witchcraft plays Double Door Saturday 24.