WITCHGRAVE hails from Sweden and performs an excellent old-school evil Heavy Metal style; you'd better grab "The Devil's Night" if keen on MERCYFUL FATE, VENOM, late 70s JUDAS PRIEST, in-your-face BULLDOZER and the 'obscure' side (e.g. ANGEL WITCH, HOLOCAUST, TRAITORS GATE) of the NWOBHM movement with a thin slice of Punk music.

The review of this band's first MLP could have stopped here, haha! Still, let's focus a little more in this fine vinyl release from High Roller Records. The brainchild of Jocke, but also featuring members of Swedish retro thrashers ANTICHRIST and horror Death metallers EVISCERATED, the diabolic trio started off some 2-3 years ago and this first piece of work - a full album is to be released some time later in the future - sees four tracks full of mystic Metal trance with lyrics themes dealing with "the occult, black magic and other dreadful things". The production of the songs is raw and occult, too, bringing forth an ancient Metal atmosphere rarely seen in today's lame sounds. All compositions are quite melodic in the guitar riffs themes, bringing to mind the vanity of the legendary MERCYFUL FATE recipe. The vocals are echoing in the Cronos vein, and the rhythm section is pounding and loyal to the early 80s European Metal primal standards.

What's missing from WITCHGRAVE's debut offering? More songs, surely! The 4-track MLP is quite an ideal purchase for the retro Metal fans still sticking to the vinyl romance (I think it'll also be released as an ultra limited MCD, though) and WITCHGRAVE proves to be a band worth spending time with, no questions asked.