SEVEN WITCHES – Call Upon The Wicked

Wow, those past four years without a new Seven Witches album have seemed like a lifetime. Fortunately, the waiting has ended with a new release named Call Upon The Wicked, which presents the comeback of the band’s proud banshee screamer, James Rivera, who hasn’t been around the band since the Year Of The Witch album back in 2004. Furthermore, this new album will let you share some live moments of Seven Witches and their performance outside of the warmth of the studio.

Seven Witches came back with a new material that still has its twisted loyalties to ’80s USA Metal, meaning tough Heavy / Power Metal. However, Call Upon The Wicked represents Jack Frost’s compositions as more modern, with an attempt to reach the current USA scene. Not that his attempt was so wrong, but it ended up not being that good of an idea. Seven Witches had some nice things going on over the years, and even though they had their fair share of hiccups, they still delivered the goods. In the case of Call Upon The Wicked, they did deliver, but not as expected.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the way to create a super album that this band always had the potential to do, especially when you have experienced Metal icons in Jack Frost, Mike LePond and James Rivera at the helm. However, the general material, even with some sparking moments, didn’t make such a big bang. The production of this release felt as if it was too “homey”, even amateurish in several areas.

Some of the higher moments of Call Upon The Wicked were portrayed through the likes “Harlot Of Troy”, “Ragnarock” and the performance of the classic “White Room” originally written by Cream. Both “Harlot Of Troy” and “Ragnarock” were a good trip back to the ’80s. Even the modernized sound didn’t sound that modern with Frost’s great classy riffs. Additionally, the guy’s solos kept the flame from burning out. Rivera, the ultimate band saver, was (as always) amazing and it was good to know that even with age he still kicks ass with his Halfordish form. “White Room”, even though it wasn’t played to utter perfection, displayed the wild Frost with a pack load of crazy solos that last for almost two minutes. It was a great show of force by a forceful dude. “Fields Of Fire”, “Mind Games” and “Call Upon The Wicked” also had some nice rhythms and went by the ’80s approach.

With that amount of experience in Metal, the Seven Witches crew should have made a true classic album by now. However, that day hasn’t come yet. Call Upon The Wicked can be considered solid with slight spikes of glory, but the band needs to find a way to hit their full stride. There is a lot of faith that Frost / Rivera / LePond will produce something of a greater quality, so just hope it won’t take another four years…

Tracklist

1. Fields Of Fire
2. Lilith
3. Call Upon The Wicked
4. Ragnarock
5. End Of Days
6. Mind Games
7. Harlot Of Troy
8. Eyes Of Fame
9. White Room (Cream Cover)
10. Metal Tyrant (Live)
11. Metal Asylum (Live)
12. Jacob (Live)

Lineup

Jack Frost – Guitar, Backing Vocals
James Rivera – Vocals
Mike LePond – Bass
Taz Marazz – Drums