Century Media
2006
Don't Fear The Reaper
About This Album
For a band whose style was virtually defined by albums that thrashed at very high speeds from start to finish, Witchery's long anticipated fourth opus, Don't Fear the Reaper, is astonishingly slow. Almost suspiciously so, prompting the usual questions about the feasibility of alien abduction (which the bandmembers would probably happily confirm) and whether their fans will revolt and renege them for having such audacity. Some invariably will, but since most know that Witchery have never taken themselves as seriously as most extreme metal bands, chances are they could probably care less about such minutiae. Especially because, aside from their more moderately paced rhythms, new tracks like "The Ritual," "Damned in Hell," and "Styx" bear all of the other well-known Witchery qualities of wickedly evil melodies intertwined with abnormally clean, catchy riffs, and generally uncomplicated arrangements that make them far easier to digest than the rest of the Scandinavian metal milieu. The song "Ashes" is especially deliberate, but uses unapologetically cartoonish gothic organs to alleviate its visions of cemetery dread, and helps make up for frontman Toxine's unusually somber lyrics this time out.
Track List (try tracks 1,3,7 and 9)

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