Black Widow USA was formed in 1997 and started as a cover band, doing Judas Priest, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Dio, etc songs. If you want to read more about  the band, check the biography on their site. In July 2003 they released their debut CD "Satan's Playground" and now here is the second.

After the intro, the first song starts with heavy drums and heavy guitars. The drums sound as if Scott Columbus (Manowar) is hitting the drums with a baseball bat. What a pounding and impressive sound the drums have. The double bass is rolling like thunder. The guitars are also mixed in a very crunchy and heavy way. The first track sounds a bit like Manowar in their early "Battle Hymn" days, but with a more modern production. Look out, don't expect a Sascha Paeth production totally filled up, no, just plain authentic instruments.

The vocals are also conspicuous. They are performed by a female with the name Cat (if that's her real name I doubt it). She sounds like Betsy "Bitch" Weiss from the early 80's band Bitch. I had to get used to her singing, especially when her voice is holding on at the end of a song line. She has got a kind of vibrato, that can get boring because she is doing that too often. Nevertheless, after a while you listen through it and it doesn't bother that much anymore.

The songs vary in tempo and are food for old- and new school heavy-metal ears. Most of the songs are very long, 7 songs passes the 5 minutes mark, with the title song with 11:32 as a record. You can expect Heavy metal with a capital H, and if you are into bands like: Judas Priest, Manowar, Manilla Road, Primal Fear (double bass-drumming) etc. you should give this record a change.

Finally: If someone in Holland, who's responsible for the program of Dokkem-open-air reads this review, book them for 2008!