• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

The Witch of the North is the fourth album in six years from Switzerland's Burning Witches and it is a continuation of their brand of '80s traditional metal with the benefits of a modern production. There have been a couple of lineup changes, including a new singer, but I would not have realized had I not looked it up. The new singer has a nice dose of grit to her delivery and can hit the high notes when necessary, so in a couple of spots ("Circle of Five" for example) she reminded me a bit of Udo Dirkschneider. The songwriting on The Witch of the North is good, but more generic than I recall from the last album with only the cover of Savatage's "Hall of the Mountain King" really standing out. It's a faithful cover, Burning Witches don't make many changes, but the singer leans in hard and does a nice job with challenging material. The album is mainly '80s-styled traditional metal with galloping bass, guitar harmonies, shouted backing vocals on the choruses, etc. and should work fine for fans of Iron Maiden, Accept, Savatage, etc.