Witchmaster-Trucizna

Ibex Moon
2009

This is the fifth full-length from Poland’s Witchmaster. They play largely war themed old style death metal. That's nothing new as a number of other bands subscribe to that same approach. To be honest the playing is raw at best and even sloppy at times. Still they manage to tap in to the essence of early death/thrash/black/noise metal ala early Venom and Hellhammmer. They make those fuzz wrapped riffs the center of their songs and the rest seems to fall in place. This band pushes primitive blasts forward and compliments them with soared throat vocals and heavy rhythms. Perhaps Witchmaster do mix up the pace fairly often. That helps to keep everything interesting and it helps to set them ahead of other acts I have heard who try to take a page straight out this style of 1980's early extreme metal. They break no real ground and they don't even get much past say 1986 for their influences yet I immediately liked this album on the first play. I thought I would find more holes on repeated plays due to the lack of originality of the material, but no I actually enjoyed it even more. They have taken the essences of their early bands, but added more change-ups and their songs have a catchiness that is almost automatic.
A surprisingly good effort.