Seven Witches - Xiled To Infinity And One

*=Staff's pick	Metal Tyrant* Incubus* Salvation Xiled to Infinity and One* Warmth of Winter Anger's Door Eyes of an Angel* Pain The Burning* See you in Hell (Grim Reaper cover)*

Genre	Heavy/Power Metal	Wade Black	Vocals
Tracks	10	Jack Frost	Guitar
Runningtime	46 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Noise Records	Billy Mez	Bass
Release	25 Feb. 2002	Brian Craig	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Judas Priest, Metallica, Iced Earth, Rage

Xiled to infinity and one is the third studio-recording from USA-stationed Seven Witches.
This time front man Jack Frost (Savatage) has included ex-Crimson Glory vocalist Wade Black to his quartet which was a great move because the effects of this are nothing but excellent.
But those of you who's heard him in Crimson Glory should forget that sound almost completely because here he sings closer to something that Rob Halford does when he's using his lower register which is more than admireable.

Otherwise the overall sound is that of Jack Frost's splendid string-bending. It's nothing like Kai Hansen's cacaphony of a thousand tones at once but instead more heavy, groovy power-chords delivered in galopping-rhythms, irascible intros and interludes and a great deal of very nice hooks without making it sound the slighest monotonous.
A few a bit slower tracks also give the album a very nice atmosphere and enhances the former statement.

As a little bonus the band's also taken the dust of Grim Reaper's See You in Hell where Wade is accompanied by Annihilator vocalist Joe Comeau and on The Burning Jon Oliva of Savatage makes a guest-appearance.

For me it took a few rotations before it dawned on me that this was a very good album but it's usually those who tend to get remembered in the long run.
As long as you don't expect anything like duelling harmony-guitars and high pitch metal-screaming and instead are big fans of a more traditional metal I can't think of any reason at all why Seven Witches shouldn't be a very high priority.

See also review of: Passage To The Other Side

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	8	7,5

Summary
7,5 chalices of 10 - Mat