Over the course of the last five years, I feel I’ve done a pretty solid job at doing a decent spread of the different styles of metal that have come to interest me in my time. But, it goes without saying that even the ones that I find interesting I’ve also found myself not immersing myself in enough. Power metal is a great example of that as it’s one of the styles that helped ease me into metal to begin with, yet I don’t find myself listening to any new material in any sort of frequency. It’s tonight that I was set on ending that massive dry spell, and it’s via their debut that Witchlords has given me the perfect remedy.

What usually loses me whenever I hear some of the newer material that younger acts bring to the table is how simply boring it all sounds. Sure, all the elements any power metal fan enjoys from the fantastical themes to the infectious rhythms to the incredibly accessible levels of intensity, but it’s not often at all that the band in question knows how to bring it all together smoothly in order to create a listen that we can all get behind yet not sound so immensely uninspired. I’d be lying if I said Witchlords changed the game of power metal in any sort of way, but I wouldn’t be giving them nearly enough credit if I merely said they did well with their debut. In less than a half hour and across ten tracks, “Demons in the Dark” packs a very welcomed and familiar punch that hits us all right where the nerd is in all of us and it couldn’t feel any sweeter. Through an immaculate flow in every track, a ferocity that can feel like it doesn’t belong with this style yet it works all too well, and a passion for the style that’s all but obvious, Witchlords does a tremendous job with their debut as it nails every key aspect of what a fan of the style can come to expect and then do just a little bit more that will surely tickle the fancy of many who hear it. My only lament regarding “Demons in the Dark” is the same I have with many other records of its kind that I said earlier: it’s not really unique. If Witchlords could do something to really make themselves stand out then they’d really have my two thumbs high up, but that doesn’t mean that the ten tracks we get here are anything to dismiss as every single one of them are no less than deluxe.

A band that’s only starting out and can manage to stand out from the crowd in even the smallest way, even if it’s not through active effort, is the sort of thing that I love to see as it shows potential greatness underneath the surface, and that’s precisely what we’ve gotten here with “Demons in the Dark”. Should Witchlords push themselves harder and really go for creating something staggering then I’ve no doubt in my mind that they can do something really stupendous.

LISTEN to “Demons in the Dark” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Witchlords on Facebook here.