Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Stormwitch
Label: Massacre Records
Release: 2018
Length: 52:35
Rating: 4/5
Stormwitch are Teutonic heavy metal champions, formed way back in 1981 in the German city of Heidenheim. So yes, this is a legendary band, especially their eighties output, headed up by the unforgettable debut »Walpurgis Night« (1984). They never managed to break through to the bigger names of »their kind«, and their career, especially over the last three decades, has been marked by serious creative hiatuses that plagued the band, plus, of course, countless lineup changes along the way. Stylistically, Stormwitch changed their character quite a bit over the years, and many old-timer metalheads who swear by pure-blooded, fossilized old-school purism turned their backs on them, or simply stopped taking them seriously. Anyway, in 2015 they dropped the very solid »Season of the Witch«, which hinted that the band seriously wanted to get back as close as possible to the cradle of old-school metal, where they came from.
Three years later, another album followed. It’s their eleventh studio record overall, called »Bound to the Witch«, and it continues the story of its predecessor, with one important difference: it sounds way more convincing, more consistent and much more tightly focused, and so more concise in what it has to say. As a whole, it’s far more compact and convincing. It’s easy to conclude that Stormwitch haven’t put out such a convincing album in ages, or one that gets so effectively close to the spirit of the eighties.
In my previous review I wrote that the lineup from »Season of the Witch« should keep going in the direction they’d set and record another studio album in good time, ideally with a bit more foot on the gas pedal. That’s exactly what happened. Even though Stormwitch had to swap out two thirds of the quintet again between the new album and the previous one (the guitarists and the drummer), it took away neither their inspiration nor their drive, so »Bound to the Witch« is definitely an upgrade on its predecessor.
Andy Mück remains an essential building block of the band’s musical legacy. His distinctive, charismatic and instantly recognizable vocal character is still their trademark. Over the years his voice has dropped a bit and thickened up, but it carries all the punch of expression, a dominant stage presence, an authoritative stance and just the right reach, which lets him climb very convincingly into the screaming registers too, while keeping the melodies clean and highly musical. His vocal color has that slightly dark quality that suits the occult poetry and the very aesthetics of old-school metal guitar phrasing extremely well. »Bound to the Witch« carries a series of superbly constructed guitar phrases that lead the songs. That’s what saves the album and makes it sound so appealing and commanding. Dynamics, mood swings, atmosphere shifts. Even in the song Bound to the Witch, where Mück’s vocal gets a bit thin in the mid-to-low range of the chorus and the band could have found a better solution, the track is pulled up from the bottom by an excellent lead guitar phrase lying under the verse, along with fitting, inventive transitional passages. The soloing is polished and highly refined across the whole album. The middle-eight passages keep the songs tight and high in quality.
Besides all the venomous, infectious riffs, the deep-rooted feel for theatrical drama and the bombastic melodic sweep that the band trades in so well across the album, the closing track deserves a special mention. That’s the acoustic ballad Nightingale. Mystical, with a hint of baroque and neoclassical elements, melancholic, slightly dark. You can easily call it more than excellent, especially thanks to its wonderfully hooky chorus melody. Good ballads are getting rarer and rarer when metal and/or rock bands tackle them (in the modern era). The band pulled this one off brilliantly, and the ballad wraps up »Bound to the Witch« perfectly. Mück shines with his inward, refined feel. He remains an excellent vocalist.
To all you fans of old-school German-style metal who wrote the band off a long time ago, I recommend giving »Bound to the Witch« a chance, because it could well surprise you in a good way. Let’s hope the band gets back on stage and visits Bavaria too, so we can finally check out their current live form at least once.
Lineup
Andy Mück – vocals
Tobias Kipp – guitar
Volker Schmietow – guitar
Jürgen Wannenwetsch – bass guitar
Marc Oppold – drums
Track list
1. Songs of Steel
2. Odin’s Ravens
3. The Choir of the Dead
4. Bound to the Witch
5. Arya
6. Stormwitch
7. Life Is Not a Dream
8. King George
9. Ancient Times
10. The Ghost of Mansfield Park
11. Nightingale
