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Were I presently sitting in some middle-of-nowhere Pennsylvania dive bar and these local yokels took the stage, I’m sure that it would all be sounding just dandy somewhere between my fourth and fifth pint. From the sobriety and impartiality of my computer desk, however, this is just dreck. Well, mostly dreck. White Witch has been kicking around for some twenty-plus years now, playing a confused sort of low- to mid-‘80s poverty metal/AOR hybrid. I can’t tell whether this was recorded in 2007 or 1987, and it doesn’t really matter. The metal flows – well, drips – in standout tracks like “Slaughter in Salem,” “Underneath the Lights” and “Street Corner Madness,” and “Singleman” straight up sounds like Aldo Nova (which is a good thing to me). However, there ought to be a special place in hell reserved for embarrassing filler like “Prince of Darkness” and the sub-Mötley “Game That I Play,” which sees a reprise appearance here after being “edited for radio.” Radio?! “Never Dies the Dream...” indeed. Buzzy rhythm guitars and blocky drums collaborate to ruin surprisingly tasty solos without hesitation, and whoever saw fit to include not just a hackneyed cover of “Paranoid,” but a live version thereof, should be brought in for questioning. I’d love to see a pack of geezers like these spring forth from obscurity and take the trad-metal world by storm, but it won’t happen with this raft of songs and a CD layout that emphatically proclaims “we don’t give a crap.” Cute dog, though.
| Tracklist |
| 1. North Central 'Scrootinizer' |
| 2. Slaughter In Salem |
| 3. Singleman |
| 4. Prince Of Darkness |
| 5. Game That I Play |
| 6. Paranoid (Live Version) [Black Sabbath cover] |
| 7. Underneath The Lights |
| 8. The Seed |
| 9. Street Corner Madness |
| 10. Game That I Play (Edited For Radio) |
: 41:51
| Buy other White Witch albums |
