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Yet another band from the '80s that has been resurrected in the new millennium, Sweden's Axewitch released a couple of albums plus the somewhat infamous Pray for Metal EP that not only had a drawing of a naked woman on the cover, ensuring teenage boys everywhere would at least cast an eye toward it, but was released in a variety of colors, something unusual for 1982. I had the orange vinyl version but can't honestly recall anything about the music other than it was nondescript.

Fast-forward to 2021 and the band has put out their fourth full-length, Out of the Ashes into the Fire, via Pure Steel Records. It is an album full of rocking heavy metal with simple, '80s lyrics that brings me back to 1984-85. I can't think of any songs on here that I didn't enjoy, and I especially liked it when the band went for a little extra atmosphere on tracks like "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie" and "Violator." There's nothing here that hasn't been done before but Axewitch have not just trotted out a collection of reworked leftovers from earlier in their career. Sure, this is a simple, straightforward album of prototypical heavy metal, but sometimes that's all you need so put it on and throw a fist in the air.