"I'm stuck on this idea of feeling like I'm being followed by something," explains Witch Fever vocalist Amy Walpole. "That my whole life I've been dragging something around behind me the whole time..."

Amy is musing on the themes behind the Manchester four-piece Witch Fever's second record, 'FEVEREATEN'. While their blistering doom-punk debut, 'Congregation', dealt with Amy's experience growing up in an Evangelical church head-on, 'FEVEREATEN' takes a step back, finding subtle unease in the aftermath - something that's always lurking in the background like a haunting. Musically, an extra layer of dark gothic drama has been added to the band's ferocious sound, elevating the atmospherics into something almost supernatural. It's no coincidence, then, that 'FEVEREATEN' will be released on Halloween.

The evocative title immediately conjures something visceral. The title track opens with the line, 'I thought I'd gotten over it, but it consumes like I was born for it,' sung over a brooding beat. "I guess it's the idea of being completely swallowed up by something or overwhelmed by something. Something very intense," says Amy.

When it came to creating the follow-up to 'Congregation', the band - also consisting of bassist Alex Thompson, guitarist Alisha Yarwood, and drummer Annabelle Joyce - knew they needed to build on that sense of intensity, creating something bigger, darker, and stranger.

"We spent a lot more time on pre-production," recalls Annabelle. "We wrote it to be recorded, as opposed to writing it to be played live, which we've done in the past, so there was a focus on creating something atmospheric and cinematic."

"We moved away from a punk sound and veered more into a gothic metal, shoegazey vibe, but still with those doomy riffs," adds Amy. "We knew we wanted to switch it up - we didn't want to write the same album a second time."

This switch-up of sound is most apparent in single 'THE GARDEN', a gorgeously dark track that swells and crashes, foreboding and sensual all at once, while Amy's lyrics subvert the Garden of Eden myth to take back the narrative into a place of female control. When writing, Amy took a more organic approach, opting to let lyrics come naturally rather than writing them all in one go.

"Before, I'd come up with a vague melody, write all the lyrics down on a sheet, and sing it all in one go. Whereas now, I just ad-lib. So on top of the rest of the band playing, I'll sing absolute gibberish, finding the melody and cadence that I like, and then fit words to that, so I'm almost letting my body figure it out before my head can even think of any lyrics."

This more relaxed approach to writing perhaps reflects, or is a product of, Amy's decision to take a step back from the raw, in-your-face way 'Congregation' dealt with her upbringing and its impact.

"With 'Congregation' it felt like I was writing from a place where it was almost happening right now - it was very raw and blunt," Amy explains. "With 'FEVEREATEN', I've leaned a little more into fiction, blurring the lines between what my experiences were, then twisting them to make them feel more surreal and weird and uncanny.

"When I talk about that idea of feeling like something has been following me my whole life, I didn't know whether it was God, which is what I was told it was. Being brought up Christian, I was always told God was watching us. Or was it something more paranormal? Like a fucking demon or something? Not that I particularly believe in that, but something more sinister. Or whether it was myself? My trauma, my own past, and my present self holding me back?"

"So, yeah - it felt like I'd taken a breath after 'Congregation' and stepped back and looked at its themes, but from a very different place. I'm in a much different place in my life now than I was when writing 'Congregation'."

Despite the darkness, the band insist that there is joy in this record. Amy jokingly refers to "their favourite word, catharsis", to which Annabelle makes a fake gagging sound, but goes on to explain that the joy lies in writing the record and performing the tracks, going on stage "wearing very little clothing" and laying everything out to everyone. Rage, after all, can be a very positive force. Just one listen to album opener 'DEAD TO ME' - which rumbles ominously before exploding into a ferocious chorus - and you can imagine the release Amy must feel, howling "dead to me" over and over on stage.

"I'm not sat writing these tracks crying. I'm not playing them on stage miserable. On stage, I'm so happy and loving life! I'm using rage as a tool to speak about my past, to speak about the things in the world that are really fucked up. I need to hold on to that anger.

"Someone asked me in an interview recently if any of the album is about forgiveness. And of course, I feel like forgiveness is obviously important in lots of situations. But for me, this album is not about forgiveness. I'm holding on to the anger and making it useful. Rather than punching a wall, or sitting at home stewing, or being angry at a random person in the shop, I'm using it in a positive way. In my everyday life, I'm not actually an angry person at all. I'm quite chill."

She pauses. "Well… not chill. I'm quite uptight. But not uptight in an angry way; I'm just anxious," she laughs.

When it comes to embracing darkness, one of the things Witch Fever have always leaned into is their spooky side - their name, after all, references the horrific witch trials, where accusations of witchcraft were murderously weaponised. Amy is a huge horror fan and studied gothic fiction for her Master's degree. The album cover itself features a shrouded figure who's popped up across all the music videos so far - each one a mini horror short.

At one point in the video for 'DEAD TO ME', a mound of crawling maggots fills Amy's mouth, spewing out onto the ground. Surely that was just a special effect?

"No!" recalls Annabelle with horror. "That was so grim! I was the one filming it, and I was dry-heaving!"

"I was an art student - I'll do anything for a good shot!" Amy replies, laughing. "My undergrad was an art degree, nothing will stop me! That's my art degree roots, really. I'm so passionate about living your art, and it makes me feel good to know I've done that - that I've put everything into it."

With spooky season in full swing, conversation naturally turns to the paranormal. "We had a bit of a scare when we did the 'DEAD TO ME' video, actually," remembers Annabelle. "Amy was on a table, writhing around, doing her possessed thing. We were in this room next door - it was like a sex dungeon! There was this weird skewer with parts of a doll on it, and when we were looking at it, the lights just went out. It freaked us out. That was in a place called Antwerp Mansion in Manchester, this Victorian building that was once an illegal rave spot. It was awful."

"I had some weird experiences in a house I lived in during the third year of uni. That house was fucked," says Amy. "The energy was all off. One time, I was at a gig in London, and my housemate texted me saying, 'I thought you were at a gig?' And I replied, 'Yeah, I am.' She said, 'But I just heard you doing vocal warm-ups in your bedroom!'"

"I'm not a full believer, because obviously, being brought up in an Evangelical church, a lot of it was based on spiritual healing. There was a lot of speaking in tongues, and people did exorcisms and shit like that, so since that, I like to keep my feet firmly on the ground!"