Tuesday, November 29, 2016

PSYCHEDELIC WITCHCRAFT:"Magick Rites and Spells"





The Italian occult rock band is back with a blend of blues inflected proto-metal that carries enough bong water in it's denim to smell like Pink Floyd at it's most trippy moments. The freedom rock flag flies going into the guitar solos that hearken back to the guitar gods of the 70's. The vocal stick close to the previously established blue print that was set in stone by the first wave of these vest metal bands back almost a decade ago.Virginia Monti has a solid alto croon and the fact she is hot doesn't hurt matters either,though this is a fact that is negated when it come to albums taking up space on my iPod. They pull out a cover of Blue Oyster Cult's "Godzilla" which is a pretty straight forward tribute to the song.

 They take a more aggressive and metallic approach to "Set Me Free", though their bass player steals the show on this one. My first impression is that these guys would be a lot of fun live. "Wicked Dream" plays more to their strengths as it expands the range of melodic elements that they collectively pull from as a unit. The "Dark Lord" follows to the proto-metal formula more closely though I like the fact that they strum the chords out and don't sound like they are just totally drooling over the Sabbath tone. "Angela" steps away from metal into a more rock n roll direction.Lyrically the song is more sinister than what a casual listen to the music might suggest.  This is one of the albums more compelling vocal melodies.

They continue to expand their melodic range on the more ballad like "Lying on Iron" .  "Black Magic Man" is more straight forward rock that doesn't have the nuance other songs here have. It carries more of  a grungy recklessness. "Slave of Grief" is marginally darker an heavier. They guitar continues to have more of a jangle to it that you might expect from this sort of thing. While the album loses a little steam in the last two songs these guys are representing the genre well in a unapologetic fashion. I'll give this one an 8.




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