Time to speed things up with some Blackened Thrash Metal from Sweden. Witchery has been somewhat of a cult metal band since the late 90's. Formed out of the ashes of Satanic Slaughter and featuring members of The Haunted and Mercyful Fate, the band plays what can be best described at a Blackened Thrash approach to Metal. Releasing five albums and an EP since 98, the bands latter release have been years apart, with their last effort
'Witchkrieg' released in 2010. The band had a pretty solid lineup until recently with a drummer replacement and two vocalist changes, the band rarely preforms live. Legend has it though the early shows were really intense. The albums have always been fairly solid and featuring numerous guests musicians along the likes of Hank Shermann (Mercyful Fate), Kerry King (Slayer) and Gary Holt (Exodus), the band continues to remain a cult favorite. I decided to go with the EP here though.
'Witchburner' is a short and sweet EP featured four covers songs from Accept, WASP, Black Sabbath and Judas Priest in addition to a few original tracks. This EP is what sold me on the band. From the opening scream in 'Fast As A Shark' to the last shrieks of 'Witchburner' this album is 25 minutes of pure metal worthy of your time.
Witchery were actually one of the first extreme metal bands I got into. I had heard some material off their record
'Dead, Hot And Ready' and really dug it. From there I got into The Haunted and and I was already into Mercyful Fate and the more darker side of Metal. Funny story about the band though. I actually own the shirt for
'Dead, Hot And Ready' and it's a somewhat obscene shirt. For those not familiar with the cover art go Google it. The back of the shirt says "Dead Hot And Ready" in large letters. I happened to be out in LA at the time visiting the Natural History Museum of all place when I had a school teacher with a group of prolly 5th grader come up to me and compliment the shirt. I walked off laughing, she seemed sincere about it too. Anyways it's a shame this band never got real big. The reviews are always great and we always want something new from them.
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