Columbia's Witchtrap have now been around for over 20 years, though they are far from a household name on the metal scene. Their fourth album, titled Trap the Witch, sees the band doing what they do best, which is delivering mid-'80s styled thrash & speed metal, clearly influenced by Kreator, Destruction, Exciter, Venom, Motorhead, and Running Wild. The trio have even written a rousing tribute to the late Motorhead bassist, called of course "Lemmy", a fun and quite blistering tune to kick off this non-stop metal attack of an album. Most of the tunes here rampage at a frantic pace, with rapid fire riffing and double bass drum blasting permeating "Disciple of Death", "Brimstone in the Air", "The Subtle Touch of Fire", and "Don't Lift the Curse" in classic Euro-thrash fashion, while the band settle in for more groove laden, mid paced metal for "Power of the Maul" and "Hard Thrashing Mania". The closing title track might just be the most aggressive number here, as the blazing riffs soar over the acrobatic drumming and jagged vocals...again, the early work of both Kreator and Destruction instantly come to mind with this fierce attack.
As you would expect with something on the Hells Headbangers label, production is very raw but still somewhat crisp, and they did a great job of capturing that early/mid '80s sound. This is a cool band and a fun album that is easy to recommend to any fan of '80s styled underground metal.
Track Listing
01 Lemmy
02 Disciple Of Death
03 Power Of The Maul
04 Brimstone In The Air
05 The Subtle Touch Of Fire
06 Don't Lift The Curse
07 Hard Thrashing Mania
08 Trap The Witch
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