Vindicator/Metal Witch-Outbreak of metal vol.1

Slaney
2009

This is a split disc consisting of six tracks each from Ohio based thrash outfit Vindicator who recently signed to Heavy Artillery and Germany's Metal Witch. It is meant to be a series featuring metal bands from different countries. Vindicator are up first and they contribute four new songs and two covers. The originals follow the blueprints of the early days of thrash circa 1983-1985. They chug along playing active yet fairly routine thrash not far off from early Metallica, Slayer and others. They keep it short and to the point, but it's just above average material that will sound all to familiar about a minute into each track. After the originals are the two covers with "I hate people" originally by The Anti-nowhere League and Indestroy's U.S.S.A. Vindicator fare better on these songs primarily due to the fact that they just sound far more inspired on these songs.
Metal Witch originally formed back in 1985, but broke up in 1987. They reformed in late 1990's and have knocked out an EP and an LP this decade. Actually five of the tracks on this disc are from either the EP or the LP. Still they were new to me and these songs are spectacular. This band draws from the likes of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, early Metal Church and Motorhead for inspiration. So it's mid-paced to medium fast classic metal that's jam packed with heavy riffs and killer vocals. This is kind of music that is completely up my alley so I found it to be instantly likable. If this band was this good two decades ago then it's a shame they broke up so quickly, but at least we can discover them now.
So we get some alright entries from Vindicator and some outstanding offerings from Metal Witch. It will be interesting to see what bands they pool together in the future for this series.