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Review: Burning Witches - The Dark Tower
Burning Witches
www.facebook.com/burningwitches666
The Dark Tower

Label: Napalm Records
Year released: 2023
Duration: 1:04:44
Tracks: 15
Genre: Heavy Metal

Rating:
3/5


Review online: May 30, 2023
Reviewed by: Sargon the Terrible
Readers' Rating
How do you rate this release?

Rated 3.43/5 (68.57%) (7 Votes)
Review

Hard to believe this is the fifth album for Burning Witches, who get a lot of ink because they are a band made up entirely of good-looking women who can definitely play. I mean, I am not going to question their chops, because this band is made up of very good musicians. I keep wanting to like this band more than I do, but despite being a solid band with very slick production values, their songwriting has just never been that great, and this album is not any different.

There's nothing wrong with these songs, they are just derivative as hell, and no amount of glossy production can hide how standard these riffs are, or the very verse/chorus/verse/chorus/chorus structures at play here. Part of it is the vocal melodies, which are just obvious and uninteresting. New vocalist Laura Guldemond is not bad, but she's not the wailer Seraina Telli was, and her vocal lines are not even close to as good. Rather than the high-octane Halfordisms of the early albums, now we get a lot of growling and shouting. The songwriting has also backed off on the Priest-worship, but that has just been replaced a lot of hard rock influence that makes this sound more accessible and less interesting.

Like I said, this is not terrible. You won't turn it off, but I can't shake the feeling that these musicians could do so much better than this with all the talent they obviously have to work with. This band started with a lot of promise, but it seems like they are in a rut and they are not getting out of it.

More about Burning Witches...
Review: Burning Witches (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Dance with the Devil (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: Hexenhammer (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: The Witch of the North (reviewed by MetalMike)
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