Witchery - Don't Fear The Reaper

*=Staff's pick	Disturbing The Beast Stigmatized* Draw Blood The Ritual Ashes* Plague Rider* Damned In Hell Crossfixation The Wait Of The Pyramids Immortal Death Styx War Piece Cannonfodder*

Genre	Death Metal	Toxine	Vocals
Tracks	13	Richard Corpse	Guitar
Runningtime	46 Min.	Patrik Jensen	Guitar
Label	Century Media	Sharlee D'Angelo	Bass
Release	27 Feb. 2006	Martin Axenrot	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Arch Enemy

Witchery is back, the band that was formed by four former Satanic Slaughter members and that features Sharlee D'Angelo of Arch Enemy fame on bass. Witchery released their debut Restless & Dead in 1998 and up until 2001 they released another two full-length albums and the EP Witchburner. Since then there haven't been much known activity from the band, but Patrik Jensen being a member in The Haunted and the fact that Arch Enemy including Sharlee have been busy might perhaps be the explanation.

The first release in five years marks the first change in the line-up in the band since original drummer Mique has left his position in favour of Martin Axenrot. Noticeable is that both drummers has been part of Satanic Slaughter at some point, even if Martin was a member after the others had left. Witchery delivers heavy and hard hitting metal that balances somewhere between thrash and death and with apparent elements of Slayer that mixes nicely with the influences from Mercyful Fate. Otherwise it is Arch Enemy that comes closest in comparison with the balance of aggression and melodic guitar lines and thrash based death.

Stigmatized kicks of the album greatly after the intro Disturbing The Beast that successfully build up the mood of something that is going to break loose. And Stigmatized does that trick along with songs like Plague Rider with duelling fast guitars and the furious closing Slayer sounding track Cannonfodder. But apart from those, most of the other songs never fully hook any real grip on me. It is a solid album, no doubt about that, but it never rises any higher than just above average.

The instrumental track The Wait Of The Pyramids features Hank Shermann of Mercyful Fate fame on guitar and with Immortal Death you get a short but intense cover track. Or should we call it remake since it originally was done by Satanic Slaughter? The production on the other hand is more or less flawless. The sound is thick and heavy yet crystal clear so you can hear the nuances and the pounding sound of the bass. Don't Fear The Reaper from Witchery stands in the end just a little above average, it has its strengths but it doesn't reach all the way apart from a few highlights.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
9	7	6

Summary
6,5 chalices of 10 - Thomas