Debut album from Portuguese
Witchbreed
is a real breath of fresh air with its blackened guitar riffs, progressive
arrangements and the powerful and haunting female vocals of Ruby Roque.
Produced and mastered by Waldemar Sorychta (Moonspell, Tiamat, Lacuna Coil), who
has clearly put his magic touch on their sound and style, steering them in the
right direction and they are not falling into the trap of trying to sound like
another Nightwish or Within Temptation.
The guitars are nicely up-front and in your face, supplementing Ruby's
charismatic and strong voice very well. Sure they do take small journeys into
symphonic territory without going overboard keeping it at a minimum, and
mandatory harsh and aggressive male vocals do also rear its ugly head on
occasion as well. I think they might have put one too many mid-tempo songs on
the album, and should have focused a bit more on the faster and harder songs,
which is where I feel they really excel.
A very well produced and executed debut album from a band with a clear vision of
the direction they want to take their music and a good steppingstone for them on
their way up...
Try out:
'Symphony of the Fallen', 'Ruby Light of the West' & 'Eden's End'.
