Poland’s Witchmaster have been going strong for years now, in fact their last release was heralded as a great triumph in black, thrashing metal. Now taken up by Ibex moon records, this new album, their 4th official studio album, shows signs of promise and hopefully a greater persona for this evil band! It’s good to see a band progressing whilst holding true to their style previously laid down.
The opening title track is intense, cold and fast enough to break your neck whilst trying to trash the crap out of your car if you’re driving at the time. But in a more sedate location, you are still going to be pounded by its sheer intensity. For a style like this, there are a number of pretenders. Witchmaster are the real deal and that has inked them into Polish history by being so true to the cause. Guitar solos are neither that clear nor precise, but you don’t want this from blackened thrash, it’s supposed to be dirty, a little all over the place to a certain point of view (it has to be said the arrangements are bloody good!), but one thing you can take from Trucizna is when the pure trash grooves come, like that in ‘Self-Inflicted Divinity’, you can’t help thinking that this is of a better standard than the bay area thrash wannabes. My god I like this music. Current bassist is already serving time in Vader, having said that, there is some legwork already completed in Incantation for this man. With such accolades and experience, it comes out in the arrangements as mentioned previously. The faster moments like ‘Two Point Suicide’ pin me to the back of my chair, this is what is should all be about. Of course, there is always the risk that this good sound will not come across at a live show, but for the moment we concentrate on this studio release.
Album production has been suitably honed and nurtured into a powerful but raw behemoth of audible entertainment. You still have the almost demo quality nastiness, but there is some good drum and bass recording on this album, for the purists of all things nasty will this work? The proof is in ‘Total Annihilation’. The full CD release will feature a cover of Sepultura’s ‘Troops of Doom’, unfortunately not present on this promo issue, but not holding that against anyone, Witchmaster’s music is simply enough for me, and for you too.
A definite one for fans of all genres, black, death, thrash and normal heavy metal, but especially Nifelheim, Destroyer 666, Old (Ger), Nocturnal (Ger) and blackened thrash fans in general. Get out your bullet belt and leathers; this album is one of the better releases for this genre thus far in 2009.
http://www.myspace.com/wearewitchmaster
http://witchmaster.pl/
http://www.ibexmoonrecords.com
