WITCHES: The Fates (THRASH): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Despite a respectable age, attested by the EP "30 Years Of Thrashing" and the box set called "30th Anniversary", Witches has only released three albums so far, each one separating a gap of thirteen long years. Between splits and reformations, the band is nevertheless still alive around its figurehead, the singer and guitarist Sibylle Colin-Tocquaine, pioneer of extreme female metal and incidentally sister of the leader of Agressor who, by the way, held the sticks by her side between 1986 and 1990.

She isn't the only one to have paraded in the ranks of this dinosaur of thrash metal, since a good twenty musicians made a visit, among whom we can quote the former ADX guitarist Bernard-Yves Quéruel or the bassist Magali Fourcade (ex Ultra Vomit, Forest Of Blood etc...) to name only two of them. For the last six years, the band has however stabilized with the hiring of Jonathan Juré behind the drums and Lienj on the six-string. In the form of a trio, Witches engraved "The Fates", a late third misdeed that we hardly expected any more.

Those for whom this group will not evoke anything would however be well advised to put an ear to it, they will understand then that furious brutality is definitely not the prerogative of young people. And even less so of the men. More wild and wild than ever, Sibylle is still angry. Ideally supported by strong lads who are entirely devoted to her, she can regurgitate a thrash death which is bathed in sticky viscera.

The album has nine tracks for less than half an hour. The four-minute mark is crossed only once, the time of a 'Feared And Adored' whose oppressive violence shatters against a heavy wall. The rest gallops along at full speed without ever calming down. Too much perhaps, depriving this album of a dose of nuance. But the blitzkrieg lover will only be able to say amen to this tub of violence that pours out. And then there is Sibyl, eternal warrior whose whole life is devoted to this good old family Thrash. The energy that burns in her hearth associated with this boundless devotion carries everything in its disastrous wake. It is on your knees that you finish listening to "The Fates", which has something of a steamroller that nothing ever stops.

Fans of No Return or Agressor and of this death metal whose femininity rhymes with bestiality can't miss "The Fates"! - Official website

WITCHES

THE FATES

AUTRE LABEL

THRASH