Witchery - Witchkrieg

Witchery
Witchkrieg
2010 Century Media
Every few years or so, Jensen takes a break from The Haunted and puts together a more traditional sounding thrash-fest with Witchery. "Witchkrieg" is a little different than what you might have expected though. ... more on that in a bit. Probably the biggest news about this album is that Toxine left the band and Legion (ex-Marduk) stepped in. After hearing him, I can't say that I miss Toxine at all. In fact, the only time I thought about Toxine while listening to this album was when I thought to myself, "I don't miss Toxine at all." The other big news is the guitar solos from the guest stars. Kerry King opens the festivities up with "Witchkrieg." Hank Shermann keeps it up in "The God Who Fell From Earth," Andy Laroque in "Dead to Worse," Gary Holt with Lee Altus on "The Reaver," and Jim Durkin on "One Foot in the Grave." Each of these guys give their parts their own unique spin, with Gary and Lee doing some insane tradeoffs and Hank's solo just being in a class all by itself. I'm sure that guitarist Richard Corpse is trying to figure out just how the hell he's going to play those solos in a live situation. Not surprisingly, Slayer's post 1990 outputs form the cornerstone of what Witchery sound like today. But hold on here... believe it or not, there's also a ton of Mercyful Fate influences on a few tracks as well. This can especially be heard on "The God who Fell to Earth" and "Conqueror's Return." These tracks draw off of both the original Fate albums as well as the reunion era material. There's a little more atmosphere on them, but don't worry. Things go back to slam bang speed thrash before you know it. All in all, this one's a keeper.