Witchery - Dead, Hot & Ready (1999)

I should probably blame myself for holding expectations so high for Witchery's follow up to the startling Restless & Dead debut, but it becomes immediate on the first playthrough of its 'sequel' that much of that effort's sheer, blissful scything rapture has been spent on the band, and I was merely going to have to settle for an album that was 'very good' as opposed to perfect. The weaponry is much the same, the five members from the debut and the Witchburner EP all return to their positions, but I got the feeling some of the truly classic tones the band covered via Judas Priest or Accept have rubbed off here. Dead, Hot & Ready is still a righteously savage affair, but the writing feels slightly more laid back. It takes a breath in between each upskirt thrust in the morgue late at night, and when all is said and done, necrolust spent in blasphemous passion, it comes out a winner all the same.

First, there is really no song here to match "The Reaper", which is pretty much the best damned black/thrash track ever written. Witchery tries to match it with the opener "Demonication", which races along at the same crashing pace as that fateful debut, but aside from its descending, quickly meted chorus bridge, the bluesy NWOBHM-inflected thrashing is simply not as vicious or vicarious. Other violations of velocity here include "On a Black Horse Thru Hell", which hammers along with abandon and sprinkles a sheen of mystique before its muscle pumping, lithe grooves in the bridge; "Call of the Coven", a very Destruction-like piston of violence that is probably the best of the fastest paced tracks on Dead, Hot & Ready; and "The Guillotine", which feels like a very ramped up sequel to the band's cover of "Fast as a Shark", Toxiene spewing some relentless death growls across his feline black rasp. The title track is also fast, hungry, and cruel, charging ahead at full bore. The little chugging breakdown is not enough to rein in the savage speed, but I love the eerie sequence with the muted guitars and spoken word before the close.

No, the album truly relies on its mid-paced material to woo the moon-bathed garden of graves in which it restlessly dwells, and here it excels with some venomous lechery like "Full Moon", with a mighty, savage Priest-like axe rhythm that seriously makes the listener feel as if he were caught like a deer in the headlights of some lycanthropic blood-hunt, his scent fresh on the trail as the furred aberrations come howling through the midnight sun. Great bridge with pumping bass and melodic guitars, killer breakdown thrash riff. "Resurrection" is another fist pumper that thrashes at a pretty middle pace, but it features some excellent classic heavy metal riffing in there that was clearly inspired by the greats (Dio-era Black Sabbath, plus a fuck ton of other, cruising NWOBHM). But don't fret, it features some of those patented, thick Jensen mosh rhythms to break up the tinge of rusted steel. "A Paler Shade of Death" is another of the album's best, opening like "Among the Living", then asserting a thunderous, down-trodden spike to its brooding riffs and a great lead segment. "The Devil and the Damage Done" is barbaric, with some grisly rolling double bass and another of the descending metal licks akin to that in "Demonication", only this time housed in a far more suitable environment of ghastly, skeletal grave turning rhythms.

It's time to go, welcome to my home
You scream my name, I´ll dress you up in flames
You sold your soul, this is what you bought
I hope you like it 'cause I’ve heard it’s rather hot!

I certainly can't think any fan of Restless & Dead would be ultimately disappointed by what the band has on offer here, even if it's a little less grabby in most places. The musical matrix of Jensen, Corpse, D'Angelo and Mique is possibly tighter than the debut, and thus they are able to explore a slightly wider foundation of sound. The leads are almost always well written, and the actual production of the record is dark and timeless, like the pitch night sepulchers in which the band's morbid and hilarious fantasies play out. Toxiene is as ever an adequate vocalist, and I feel with Dead, Hot & Ready he's a little more expressive than the previous album. If this sophomore suffers anything, it's a slight case of redundancy, since the band had blazed such an intricate path of carnage already, and several of the tracks here feel like crafty re-writes of their existing songs. But if you already worshiped at the corpse of the debut such as I, you will be straining your spine and thrashing your neck rather than dwelling on the fact.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (nocturnal confirmation)

http://www.myspace.com/witcherytheband