Witches Mark-Witching Metal Ritual

Heaven and Hell Records
2013

Austin, Texas-based Witches Mark, who are self-described as "Bringers Of Heavy Metal Death", were formed back in 2005. Prior to this, full-length debut album from Witches Mark, the band (guitarist Robert Williams, guitarist/vocalist Robb Bockman, bassist Andy Gonzalez  and drummer Scott Palmer) issued a demo single on their song "A Grim Apparition", contributed to a Angel Witch tribute album with their take on "Something Wrong" and released the EP "A Grim Apparition". On the interestingly named "Witching Metal Ritual", with that pretty cool looking, and most certainly, old-school inspired album art coming from Yannick Bouchard of Illusory Dreams, the band stakes their claim very early on that they are an original sounding metal band. Even if you can pick up on all the different elements that have been assembled here within these 8-tracks (traditional heavy metal, thrash, death, dark metal, doom, and black metal all come into play even as your mind drifts toward the subject of N.W.O.B.H.M) there's just no clear-cut comparisons (sound-wise) to be found. To their credit Witches Mark has forged their own unique identity. Maybe it's the fact that within this band there are current and former members of bands such as Reverend, Hammerwhore, Pansergod, SkullSplitter, Ancient Cross and Of the Fallen. When your resume is that loaded with veteran musiciansyou then it's easy to get a clear picture of what kind of damage this group lays down on tape! With production duties having been split between the band and one Stuart "Batlord" Laurence (Agony Column/Ignitor) and mixing and mastering having taken place under the careful ears of one Brendon Bigelow (Ignitor/Death Of Millions) this album is everything a true heavy metal fan could every want and then some. Sweet leads? Yep. Cool metal vocals that make you think about the early days (as in the early 80s) of the N.W.O.B.H.M. scene? But of course. When you add in quality song-writing and an overall band that is effective in such a way as to be lethal it all adds up in the end. Witches Mark just get's "it". All in all this is a stellar debut album, but when you get all fancy and bring in guests for the evening's entertainment then, well, things just get all kinds of crazy good. With guest appearances like Ross "The Boss" Friedman (Manowar/Death Dealer/The Dictators), Jack Starr (Virgin Steele/Burning Starr), Jason McMaster (Dangerous Toys/Watchtower/Ignitor/Broken Teeth) and Martin Debourge (Damien Thorne/Head Transfer Process) on board this album flat out rocks! Another addition to my year end best-off? It very well could be the case.

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