Witch's Hat - Mastery Of The Steel
Style: Rock
Running Time: 36 Minutes and 50 Seconds
Label: http://www.emergencyumbrella.com
Rock, you bet your ass. Fantasy rock... where'd everyone go ? Witch's Hat plays an interesting meld of rolling rock songs with a bit of fantastical imagery/song writing thrown in. 'Mastery Of The Steel' blows by quickly in nearly 37 minutes. While I can't exactly say that this is the best album I've ever heard, it is however the first real fantasy rock album I've had experience with and for that maybe I'm just in over my head with this release and reviewing it. But I know what I like and this isn't exactly it. But it's not exactly awful either... its fairly enjoyable at times.
For 37 minutes you're treated to Ten songs of great songwriting, but awkward lyrical content. Rolling through tales of medieval heroes, vampires, and aliens its hardly something for everyone, but for those that are still clamoring for the times of old when bands used to actually have shows and made you feel the music wholly in your chest while listening Witch's Hat has that sort of aesthetic appeal. While aurally, sometimes, unpleasant with the synth sounding very out of place at the exact same time, the synth builds another layer on the songs that just requires you to have a better ear for melody.
For all the bad I can say about the lyrical content and how cheesy it feels, theres equally something good I can say about the music contained within 'Mastery Of The Steel'. It seems that Witch's Hat revels in the fact that they have created something so awkward in a lot of senses calling to mind bands like Tenacious D, Spinal Tap, and Goblin Cock. Musically it blurs some lines between just straight up rock and dance floor pop rock songs. Relying on fairly simplistic guitar work that rumbles out through your speakers that sometimes delves into the territory of shredding leads. Also relying heavily on bass work, like in the song "Supply And Demand" where the bass just twangs out for the entirety leading the guitar work to back it up instead of vice versa. Vocally its somewhere between Iron Maiden's warbling but hardly as high in pitch, Dio's rocking , and Tenacious D's fantastical work of being completely out of left field and unnatural.
Bottom line Witch's Hat has created something very interesting, and something that not everyone will definitely be a fan of, but if given the time I could see them falling in line with all of the aforementioned bands' best works.
Score: 5.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment