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WARLOCK
Burning The Witches

Mausoleum (1984)
Rating: 9/10

Warlock are another of the many female-fronted bands that have recently burst onto the heavy metal scene. But after listening to Burning The Witches, it’s obvious that these Germans are far superior to their American counterparts, such as Hellion and Bitch.

The band are fronted by the beautiful Dorothee Pesch. Ms. Pesch’s vocals are equally as stunning as her looks, ranging from the Geddy Lee-like vocals (à la Acid’s Kate) on the album’s excellent opening cut ‘Sign Of Satan’ to the more raunchy Jody Turner-style on ‘Homicide Rocker’. Musically, the band matches the excellence of their vocalist’s talents, producing a tight often melodic sound which reminds me somewhat of that great debut album from Canada’s Reckless a few years back (1981 to be precise!).

This album is full of high quality numbers such as ‘After The Bomb’, ‘Dark Fade’ (touches of Savatage’s ‘Sirens’ here), ‘Metal Racer’ and the title track. Unfortunately there are a couple of low points, these being the ballads – ‘Without You’ and ‘Holding Me’ – which close each side.

Warlock are far more devastating with their more uptempo material like the superb ‘Hateful Guy’, which for me wins the “best track” on the album award.

So then, a fine debut from a band whom will hopefully be around for many years to come.

Bernard Doe

Review taken from Metal Forces, Issue 3 (1984)

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