Witch Mountain : s/t

Three years later the band is back with a new singer and bass player. The first thing that is obvious is the voice of the new singer Kayla Dixon.She has a lower alto that is propelled with more blues soaking her soulful approach. The first song might be the only tune on this album that really fits the doom metal mold. The rest of the album has a more organic rock n roll feel to it. I don't remember any growled vocals on the last album like those that appear in the corners of the first song. The opener grew on me with repeat listens though I never doubted it as a song, it just became something I had more of a desire to listen to again. " Mechanical World" has more of a Led Zeppelin pulse to the guitar. This gives it a more unique personality than just Sabbath recycling. They have more of a Mountain swagger to them.

Dixon gives good head register going into "Burn You Down". The guitars take on a more metallic chug for this one. Her vocals slowly form their melody round it in a way that reminds me of Royal Thunder, as there is a balance of vocal acrobatics. This feels heavier than what I remember of the previous album. The song builds into more of a gallop. Dixon's vocal proves it's self more capable of going into a higher Ann Wilson place. The growled vocals return with more prominence on this one. "Hellfire" is a slower soulful blues driven break from the metal. Vocally it's impressive. Musically it's more like an interlude than a song unto it's self , as it kind of circles it'self without really going anywhere.

Bass opens the 14 minute "Nighthawk" that closes the album. The first two minutes could have been cut for the sake of time and when we get into the meat of the song is a slower steamy song that is more blues in it's intention than doom. This song is loaded with guitar solos so if that is your kink you will be pleased. Nine minutes later the song builds into a storm of something more metal. I think the fat could have been trimmed on this song and streamlined it into a more concise seven minutes. The heavy parts don't let themselves build to fruition and feel more like a tease. Which would not be as big of a dealing unless it has not been 14 minutes in the making. Over all this album is an improvement for them and I'll round it up to a 8.5.

Black Queen : "the Directress"

When the list of guest vocals on your album includes Wrest, and members of Assuck, Witch Mountain , Eye of Nix and Samara you are doing something right. While they are very dense and dark the first song doesn't really convince me they are black metal and I'm not even sure if that is the case this Seattle band wants to make here. This is without a doubt metal, perhaps the variety that will drive you insane if you try to fit it neatly into a sub genre. The use both clean vocals as well as a mean rasp, sometimes dropping down into a more deathly tone. Within the span of the opening song's not quite eight minutes I change my mind several times in regard to how I feel about the production. Some of the vocals come across as being drier than other. The guitars distortion also sound to be coming from rack mountain effects rather than gain and volume.

There is an almost Deicide like attack to "Silentium" . This brisk trashing piece of death metal is pretty concise and these guys don't rely on losing you with eight minute monsters in fact only one song reaches past that point.  They slow down going into the final minutes of "Silentium" and  make something very dark and creepy, before punching back into the death metal. There drummer is almost as insane as Steve from Deicide. Weird samples start off " the Names of Snakes" another blistering blur of death metal that has just enough old school groove and attention to detail.  The ra primal way they attack these songs with is one of the factors that keeps bringing Deicide to mind, though Black Queen never locks into the almost machine like chug Deicide can bulldoze you with. The clean vocals return this time keeping at a low croak. Sometimes when they get too fast from their britches these guys are not as impressive as when they are soaking the songs in darkness. I really like when they lock into  more of a hook in the final minutes of this one.

"the 3rd Key" plays around with some haunted house ambiance before the drums come in an stir up a fiendish  pounding against the sounds of tortured souls. The riff to this one is pretty catchy and tries to challenge our rule here that 'cool riffs alone do not make a good song". "After some horror sample they lurch into the weird horror punk of "Forever Dagger" which does get some Acid Bath like explosions of harsher metal sent through it. Now that they opened the flood gates for singing , the low baritone croon returns on "Beneath the Barrow" though they are not as dominant as they were on the previous, forming more of a call and response between the two vocal styles.Three minutes in finds the music dying down so allow the clean vocals to call out into the darkness. Dynamically they really give themselves more room to breathe on this one as the song winds around melodic passages at every turn, before bringing it all crashing down with blast beats.

The title track that closes the album out is the longest song here. The song writing lends itself to free form feral rowdiness and doesn't allow the song to have as focused of a path as the rest of the album. It's more straight forward death in some sense.  The sung melody that comes in mid way into the song is the highlight  of this one.The slowed riff in this song's third is crushingly effective. The piano based outro is a weird way for this one to go until the bust back into with a ripping thrash like riff. Even though they are not as cohesive when it comes to the last song , over all this album takes chances and offers a new take on death metal. I'll give this one a 8.5