WITCHGRAVE – WITCHGRAVE

This is the debut album of the Swedish band Witchgrave. The first thing I want to say is this band could be a good successor when Venom ceases to exist.

The voice of vocalist Joakim Norberg sounds like a mix between Lemmy and  Venom’s Cronos Lant. That’s awesome!

A very special song is “Motorcycle Killer”. It sounds more like a Saxon or Judas Priest song.  It is a great mix of NWoBHM and the beginning time of Black Metal. The riffs remind me of Saxon’s Motorcycle Man but the theme of the song and the voice is a black metal thing.  This is a good example how the whole album is.  The theme is Satan and other black metal themes. The songs are often short, about 3 minutes but the last song ‘shun the light’ is about 8 minutes.It’s a good song to finish the album.

The first song “Raising Hell” is very powerful and reminds me to the good old 80’s Venom.  The next song “The virgin must die” is also a powerful song with a great voice and guitar riffs.  “Rites of the dead” begins like a typical black metal song but later it gets power.  Song 4 – 6 are also powerful and makes it fun to hear an album like this.

All in all I think this will be a successful album and a ‘must have’ for all VENOM fans.

I rate this album  7/10

Track List:

1 Raising Hell

2 The Virgin must die

3 Rites of the Dead

4 The Apparition

5 Seduced by the Dark

6 The Last Supper

7 Motorcycle Killer

8 Shun the Light