Review of Seven Witches - City Of Lost Souls (Re-Mastered)

Though this will sound extremely dated when compared to the band’s recent release, Amped, City of Lost Souls is now only six years its senior and arrives billed as a remastered edition. While the remastered billing is slightly questionable and its sound certainly dates it much farther back than its original year of release would suggest, the album, channeling vintage traditional and thrash metal, is quite strong and those with a love for the Overkill school of no-frills heavy metal will find both Bobby Lucas’s vocal performance and Jack Frost’s guitar tone to their liking.

Whether or not you’re going to like Seven Witches’ second full-length hinges on your like or dislike of more traditional metal. It’s bombastic (“Hell is for Children,” keys included), contains often-funny introductory sound bites (the aforementioned “Hell is for Children” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow), and is unapologetic in its tribute to an era of metal when over-the-top vocals were more or less the norm and melodicism still trumped (and often defined) heaviness.

This lineup, consisting of Lucas (Overlorde) on vocals, Billy Mez (Single Bullet Theory) on bass, Brian Vincent on drums, and band founder Frost covering all guitar duties certainly produces an altogether different sound than its Alan Tecchio fronted modern counterpart, and while there are fewer misses on City of Lost Souls than on Amped, the latter offers a sense of urgency that the former lacks. If you can digest more modern elements seeping into what is still a traditional foundation, you’d be better off buying Amped first, but if the current version of Seven Witches turned you off because of its penchant for catering to a more modern sound, City of Lost Souls might just suit you perfectly. Lucas’ performance alone at least warrants a sampling of this disc.

Release Details

Seven Witches

City Of Lost Souls (Re-Mastered)

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