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Witches Mark are advertised as playing traditional Heavy Metal, and that's not too far off the mark. The basics are there, but the delivery is definitely more modern and with some Power Metal leanings. The sound here is near crystal clear, and the first song is especially fast and somewhat heavy, feeling almost out of control at times. The other songs are more mid-paced and sound a bit depressing at times, especially with the vocal melodies used. The vocals are my main problem with this release: While the singer certainly can sing – there are some very good vocal parts here – the vocal melodies are sometimes annoying or even almost atrocious, which really doesn't help pull up the songs which are quite average to begin with (that in itself isn't a bad thing per se, but the combination ruins the experience for me.)

Despite rather average to below average material, there are enough good moments here to make one hope for something better the next time around. For now, A Grim Apparition is a curiosity, but definitely not mandatory.