WITCHES - 7

INDEPENDENT

METAL TO INFINITY A very soft start, slowly disturbed by an evil and threatening sound... Cool! The witches seem ready to possess your body and mind with their freaky music! Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to Witches from France. This isn't exactly a new band and I'm sure underground Metal fans already know them. Nevertheless I am obliged to tell you more about these French neighbors because they�re worth a positive review. Witches contains two females and two male musicians. As a matter of fact they're active since 1986 but as I told you before they�re still infamous. That's a pity if you would ask me because they're delivering some vicious and mean true Metal. Witches surprise me now and then! By mixing some weird musical arrangements and evil samples they sound extremely dark and sinister. Their non compromising Thrash / Death Metal is good produced and will easily excite you. The female grunt vocals are so gloomy that they freak me out! Sometimes clean vocals are weaved into the songs; believe me they fit perfectly! Overall Witches stands for some superb dark Metal although they stayed focused on good rhythms and symphonic riffs. Musical wise I am thrilled by this band, the music enclosees an ideal concept for these dark days; Halloween is only a few weeks ahead! Testament is a good band to compare Witches with although it sounds darker and much more underground. In some songs I also hear influences of the older Death Angel, Death and even Dark Angel! Some acoustic parts are overwhelming... Also by adding some 'folk' parts, hearing clear vocals, Witches succeeds to sound original and again, so god damn creepy. Especially at these calmer pieces you'll discover that some talented musicians are present! Awesome! Some arrangements seem to be picked from a disturbing horror movie; it tells all about the entire atmosphere on this disc! If a musician succeeds to sound so menacing by the way he pulls the strings I can only bow my head low! Another strong point are the guitars; the riffs are dazzling and mainly influenced by the US Thrash Metal scene! Also the solos are terrific! If you�re into this kind of screaming - heavily pulled guitar solos - you'll be thrilled! Witches deliver much a lot of variation in their songs and it takes time to discover all the secrets of this CD. You'll hear fast and furious Thrash / Death, some 'folk' parts and even wicked Doom Metal... Overall Witches stays focused on the typical underground sound and that's probably the reason I like this band so much. Mainstream Thrash Metal bands often sound to polished and, although good times are back again, they often lost their focus on good Thrash Metal. Witches doesn�t and their innovating point of view should be noticed by bigger labels! I am convinced this band is able to steal a lot of Metal souls. I admit I waited until the end to review this CD from the package I received. Don't ask me why but it proves that the saying 'last but not least' contains a lot of truth. These Witches convinced me by their evil game and I'm sure you'll be touched by them too. Check: www.witches.fr My Points: 89/100 (Review by Officer Nice) RETURN TO MTI INDEX