Year: 2020
Total Time: 52:32
Label: Nuclear Blast
BURNING WITCHES is a band which was formed by 5 girlfriends who wanted to express their love for Metal by forming a group that would play exactly this, pure, traditional, classic heavy metal, nothing more, nothing less. Something equally impressive is the fact that even though someone would expect that they would emerge from a country like Germany for example, those girls hail from Switzerland, a country from the north that they are definitely not known for their strong classic metal scene. They were formed only 5 years ago but have already released 3 albums, this new one included, two 12” and one double compilation album already and also have toured with GRAVE DIGGER and played slots at festivals such as Bang Your Head and Wacken Open Air.
So, in this new album, at first we need to note the replacement of the previous singer Seraina Telli with Laura Guldemond and then the total of 12 songs which give us 52 minutes of what we expect to get, Solid Heavy Metal, without experimentations and compromises whatsoever. Before you may say “Ok boring, let’s move on”, just hold your thoughts. Things are not that simple and fortunately not bad at all. After a small intro, your place will be full of nice, well played, pure Heavy Metal with freshness, talent, appetite and strength. Their influences become obvious from the very beginning, JUDAS PRIEST, DIO, WARLOCK/DORO (this goes without saying), ACCEPT/U.D.O., PRIMAL FEAR with a hint of MANOWAR, but fortunately all compositions stand in a very good level, very well executed, with great tunes and guitars spreading generously riffs, melodies and nice lead parts.
From the first hearing we can single out the opening track “Lucid Nightmare”, the title track that follows next, “Six Feet Underground”, “The Sisters Of Fate”, the powerful melodic “The Final Fight” and obviously we couldn’t exclude from the highlights the solid cover of the classic MANOWAR song “Battle Humn”, with guest appearances by Ross the Boss (ex-Manowar) and Michael Lepond (SYMPHONY X, SEVEN WITCHES). The rest, even though not bad at all, on the contrary, are in my opinion a couple of steps below qualitywise.
The production is very good and clear with the help of their good friend Schmier from the legendary DESTRUCTION, who is by their side since the first steps and if they had a better cover instead of this rather cheesy one I would definitely hit them with a better mark.
All you loyal metalheads, should wear your tight jeans, leather jackets with patches and buttons, and check out these cool girls from the country of top quality chocolate, who try to sweeten you with their Heavy Metal !
Rating: 6.5/10
Editor: Antonis Livanios
Related Link: BURNING WITCHES – Facebook Page
