Today we have 80's heavy metal Swedish legends AXEWITCH who are back with a brand new album titled "Out Of The Shadows Into The Darkness". This actually marks their first album of new material since their 1980's heyday. With many classic albums like "The Lord of the Flies", "Vidions of the Past", "Hooked on High Heels" and an E.P called "Pray for Metal", and if you were fans of them then this is going to be one that you will also enjoy.

"The Pusher" is the first song on the album and it opens with some powerful riffs that come crashing right in. From this you can hear that the band has a very old school sound. The song is completed with big choruses for a big song. With catchy riffing and a face melting guitar solo this song is a strong opener. After that one we have "In Pitch Black Darkness". We hear the sounds of rain coming down with a clean guitar melody playing over it. The heavy guitars then take over and make this into a real bang your head type of tune. The riffs in this one are just killer with an epic guitar solo to match.

A song to check out is "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie" which opens with a riff that that just hooks you right in as the song really gets you moving. A mix of clean and heavy guitars help build to a nice sing along chorus and a guitar solo that brings the song to somewhere different. This is a brilliant song. The track "Boogie to Death" has a killer groove going on there. The drumming here really shines through as the guitars take it up a notch. There is a nice build to the chorus and the band really helps with lifting up that guitar solo to come through.

The song "Going Down" has a very eerie intro with clean guitars coming in and then a heavy guitar then enters to put a stamp on it. Once the main riff comes in it reminds me of 80's BLACK SABBATH (the "Headless Cross" album sprang to mind). This builds to a really big chorus. This is a big song with a big guitar solo to match.The albums closing track is "Violator" and this one really channels that NWOBHM sound. The drums here make for a nice pace as the guitars riff onto of it. We are treated once again to a big chorus and some good old pinched harmonics thrown in for some good measure as the guitar solo then comes along and commands your attention. This makes for a great closer.

We are also treated to two bonus track too. The first of which is "Nightmare" which has some really cool drumming and the second being "Axewitch" which is named after the band and more of a statement song. Both of these songs got the same feel and vibe to the rest of this album and make for a nice addition. "Out Of The Shadows Into The Darkness" shows that AXEWITCH still have that real old school 80's sound as it sounds like they never left the 80's. This is filled with catchy riffs and it is these guitar riffs that stand out to me the most on this album. This is a really fun album to listen to and the vocals really command the songs.