Crystal Viper - Queen Of The Witches

Published February 13 2017

*=Staff's pick	The Witch Is Back* I Fear No Evil When The Sun Goes Down* Trapped Behind Do Or Die Burn My Fire Burn Flames And Blood We Will Make It Last Forever Rise Of The Witch Queen* See You In Hell (CD bonus track) Long Live The Loud (LP bonus track)

Genre	Heavy Metal	Marta Gabriel	Vocals
Tracks	10	Marta Gabriel	Guitar
Running time	43 Min.	Andy Wave	Guitar
Label	AFM Records	Blaze J. Grygiel	Bass
Release	February 17, 2017	Tomek "Golem" Danczak	Drums
Country	Poland	Marta Gabriel	Piano
Producer	Bart Gabriel
Similar bands	---

Polish heavy metallers Crystal Viper return with their 6th record after putting the band to rest for a couple of years. The influences of the 80's heavy metal era are noticeable indeed and from time to time it kind of passes the extreme as it gets a little too close to ripping off the groove of Iron Maiden on some parts in a few songs. It's a thin line between borrowing stuff, influence and copying sometimes and if you ever consider to check out this album, just take a listen from the 2.45 mark and forward in Burn My Fire Burn and judge for yourself.

Most of the album's content is clearly not carbon copies of other bands' work, but a little too often I tend to hear bits and pieces or even longer parts that are just too reminiscent of things made in the past. It takes the edge off the album and overshadows it's capacity to some degree, as I over and over again put focus on that stuff in particular instead of the entirety, and considering that I've now chosen to spend a few lines to let people know about this matter, it probably exists one too many times on the album.

The heavy metal that the band performs is often quite powerful and aside from the ballads, Marta Gabriel's vocal effort is for the most part in the line of other female vocalists of bands like Battle Beast, Nightmare and Burning Point. If you haven't listen to this type of metal so frequently before, or just don't recognize the similarities that I mention, or simply just don't give a shit about originality, you will find that Queen Of The Witches comprises some fine material. I personally think that this effort is a pretty decent one after all, even if I obviously question its genuineness largely.