Okay, this is power metal!

In the absolute textbook definition of what the silly term means to me and what it meant to me in the mid-80’s when I first heard the label as the title of a metal mag, this is what it should be about. Today it seems anything keyboarded drenched and Kai Hansen-vocalized to the nth degree is now power metal…too bad that’s all boring and pedestrian, not to mention a low common denominator to otherwise fluid, intellectual music.

Seven Witches reunites with power screamer James Rivera and pulls no punches with its latest release, Call Upon the Wicked. While James seemingly has his hat in every band under the sun these days from Malice to Hellwitch and a live stint in Agent Steel, this latest opus from Seven Witches destroys the mundane or expectant right from the first chords of “Fields of Fire,” and while I’m not entirely sure I’d have opened such a tremendous record with that particular track, hey, it works! In fact, everything about this record just works, plain and simple.

Rivera’s voice is above board as it usually is and the songwriting is a valid kick to the sternum throughout the entire hour-long process. The potpourri of speed, traditional, power, and even a bit of doom makes this album one of the finer pieces of metal merriment I’ve encountered in some weeks. The sharp edge to the music makes Seven Witches one of the really unsung heroes of true power metal that hardly anyone knows about because the Bodom/Hammerfall/Sonata Arctica worship is enough to make real metal fans vomit in their own mouths. How this band has slipped under the voracious appetites of some of our metal brethren is simply beyond me on every level. James Rivera is the new generation’s Rob Halford, spilling vocal notes that pass that mantle down from the mighty leather-clad giant to the unassuming disciple awaiting his master’s abdication, and that would right soon.

One of the greatest tracks I’ve heard this year, never mind from this album, is “End of Days”, which is so intently heavy metal in every singly note that it might well be one of my new favorites after hearing it five times already. Every single second of its nine-minute entirety is a lesson in heaviness the likes of which even the commoner could never forget or dismiss. “Mind Games is an expletive call to arms for the masses to stop allowing their individualism of thought to be raped and stolen and it’s competent and lush with a brief dalliance with hardcore in vocal accompaniment. Don’t let this deter or frighten you; it’s classic SW all the way, albeit low brow diction for emphasis and effect. One listen to “Harlot of Troy” and there’s absolutely no good argument against Rivera for new reigning Metal God, and as a devoted Priest fan for 31-years that’s an easy statement for me at this point.

If you miss this album, you’re simply falling out of the loop and the program is bypassing you at record speed. This is a must-own in all facets, and if the true meaning of power metal is ever in question during your moments of introspection this will shut tight any doors leading you astray, that I can guarantee. Call Upon the Wicked is elevated sanity with small flashes of madness in all the right places to assure its coveted place in metal lore.

TRACK LISTING

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*Comments:

1.  Fields of Fire
2.  Lilith
3.  Call upon the Wicked
4.  Ragnarok
5.  End of Days
6.  Mind Games
7.  Harlot of Troy
8.  Eyes of Flame
9.  White Room (Cream Cover)
10.  Metal Tyrant (Live)
       (Bonus Track)
11.  Metal Asylum (Live)
       (Bonus Track)
12.  Jacob / Priest (Outro) (Live)
       (Bonus Track)

Total playing time:  61:12

Release Date: June 28, 2011
Label: FrostByte w/ N.A. Dist. via eOne Entertainment

Seven Witches - Call Upon the Wicked

Reviewer: Chris

August 8, 2011