In days gone by I would have bought this Witches Mark on the strength of the diabolically cheesy album art that adorns it. You’ll see what I mean when you see it. That aside I was expecting an album of fist banging heavy metal anthems with spiked leather gloves held firmly aloft in tribute to the only true worthwhile pastime in life, heavy fucking metal. Hailing from Austin, Texas in the good ol’ US of A this band love their metal hard, heavy and fast as the anthemic “Bringers Of Heavy Metal Death” makes you want to break out a can, strap on the inflatable flying V and give it some welly with your well worn neck muscles. The pace borders speed metal and shows very little variety, preferring it seems to bombard the listener with scorching riffs and blazing solos.
Questioning whether this act actually offers anything above and beyond what maybe each individual country in the metal can offer within their own communities is highly debatable but at least Witches Mark incorporates a plethora of touches to their song writing such as US power metal licks on “Salem’s Fire”, as “Swarm” had me thinking about old Exciter when Beehler was in the ranks. OK it’s not as aggressive as those Canadians but the power certainly is. As I suggested earlier WM like to mix things up and “Slaves To Their Own Sin” has some excellent NWOBHM style hooks in the guitar work and accompanied by theatrically delivered vocals which make WM that bit different overall. The keyboards that initiate “We Die” work as well as the vocals prove that they are critical to making a decent heavy metal album, and whilst I wouldn’t say that Robb is unbelievably brilliant he has a deft of tone and delivery not often seen in metal today as this song reminded me of the material Sabbath did on “Tyr” and “Headless Cross”, epically performed and diversely engrossing.
A homage to all things metal presents itself in the form of the title track and for those old enough and wise enough to have stayed with the genre for this long this will melt your alcohol strained heart and have you reminiscing over long nights listening to Priest, Motorhead, Slayer, Metallica and Maiden, and if you never did it then I feel sorry for you. This is a new album with a spirit that resides in the 1980s and if something old is what you crave as something new then this album is completely and truly the back patch on your denim vest and you should wear it with pride.
(8.5/10 Martin Harris)
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