Mark Greening (formerly of ELECTRIC WIZARD and WITH THE DEAD, also RAMESSES) and Virginia Monti (PSYCHEDELIC WITCHCRAFT) have joined forces to create the supergroup DEAD WITCHES. The band aims to take the listener on a journey into darkness, with slow, fuzzed-out rifs. Despite the tragic loss of guitarist Greg Elk, the band went ahead and released their debut album.

Unfortunately, the tracks aren't particularly memorable, and blend into a haze of sameness. There are a few moments of goodness here and there, but scattered moments do not a solid album make. I read that part of the motivation for releasing this album was paying homage to a fallen friend/band member, but the music is what it is.

Virginia Monti gives a good vocal performance, with some sassy semi-growls popping up, but the muffled vocal effect started to wear thin eventually. I felt that I couldn't get a proper measure of her voice. For me, her best performance is on the title track, "Ouija", with some catchy vocal hooks.

"Ouija" also had some of the best guitar riffs on the album, in my opinion. It's one of the slower tracks on the album, with some interesting counter-melodies on guitar. The main riff on "Drawing Down the Moon" was also engaging. Its faster-paced coda adds some variety, and has some good drum work from Greening. "Dead" and "World of Darkness" suffer from a lack of compelling elements, at times. Carl Geary does, however, add some rich, honey-toned bass riffs to the latter, so things weren't all bad. The last track does have some interesting riffs, but drifts off for a good while into drone notes that don't really  add anything to the music.

I wanted to love this album, given the lineup and one of the reasons for releasing it. Sadly, this album was one of the many cases of supergroups not living up to the PR hype. While there were enjoyable moments, "Ouija" just didn't capture my heart, despite multiple lessons before setting fingers to keyboard, if you will.