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Seven Witches, Jack Frost's main band, when he's not busy being in every other band in existence, is back with a new album titled Call Upon the Wicked. While comparisons with Frost's most famous collaboration, Savatage, will always follow him, the return of James Rivera on vocals has brought a definite Thrash influence to the straight-up Heavy Metal foundation on which Seven Witches music is built. 80s bands like Powermad, Gothic Slam and, of course, Rivera's main creative outlet, Helstar, all can be heard on Call Upon the Wicked. Rivera's high pitched screams also bring to mind Painkiller-era Judas Priest.

Call Upon the Wicked doesn't have any real killer tracks, but there aren't really any fillers either. That doesn't count the unnecessary "bonus" live tracks, which sound like they were recorded in a club through the sound board. While they may be a good representation of what the band sounds like in a small venue, the songs themselves are generic, all except "Jacob," which features the band breaking into a cool cover of "Victim of Changes." Some of the better studio tracks include "Fields of Fire," "Call Upon the Wicked," and the epic "End of Days." "Ragnarock" has a goofy chorus, hardly befitting the subject matter, but I found myself singing along anyway. The cover of Cream's "White Room" does little to improve the already classic Hard Rock anthem.

Call Upon the Wicked is full of well played, mid-paced, thrashy Heavy Metal that stops short of being awesome, but there are plenty of blazing guitar solos and high pitched screams to keep most fans happy.