Just a Scratch

This band rose from the ashes of Wicca… no, not a witches’ spell, a retro speed/thrash formation who joined the fray in the late-80’s with an excellent debut, the aptly-titled “Splended Deed”. A few years later the guys have regrouped around a more venomous moniker, with two Swiss colleagues with a fairly strong pedigree (Poltergeist, Messiah, Infected, etc.) joining them for the ride.

The effort reviewed here is more than just a scratch on the early-90’s metal horizon, a fairly cool 4-tracker closing on nearly half an hour. The delivery isn’t that far from the “the Bay-Area meets German speed metal” hybrid that Wicca were exercising, but while the latter’s style was coming with a more uplifting flair, this one is served with a dark brooding vibe quite reminiscent of the one of Risk’s “The Reborn” although this scratch here is decidedly more dynamic with a covert headbanging potential. The shadow of the Bay-Area is still around as now the ambition is bigger the band nodding towards the loftier, more technically-peppered vistas of Heathen and Testament.

The engaging progressive thrash behemoth “Generations Talk” sums up the approach at hand quite well with a delectable alternation between fast lashing and slower stomping moments, its less ordinary veneer making it a sheer candidate for “Victims of Deception”, and even “Time Does Not Heal”. Such aspirations aren’t quite shared by “Place and Time”, an atmospheric heavy semi-ballad that still delivers due to its monolithic anti-flashy character, the lost track from the mentioned Risk magnum opus. Before one starts distrusting such changes of heart comes “Distrust a Change” its diverse, also quite hard-hitting, nature nearly identical to the one of the first cut, a complex multifarious composition with interesting time and tempo changes, with some inspired intense thrashing as well which gets nicely translated on “Fabula de Antigua Hora”, another intricate proposition the guys admirably sustaining the energetic pace the entire time, coming up with over 6-min of speedy hectic, not very predictable thrashorama.

The vocalist suits the elaborate music with his not very intrusive, but steady unwavering semi-clean/semi-declamatory baritone, stretching himself for the odd more dramatic croon, but generally not interfering much although his curt staccato recitals are quite effective at times. They became angrier and noisier for the “Accident on a Dancefloor” demo three years later in order to suit the incorporated aggro-rhythms which disturbed the timid attempts at more vigorous old school thrashing. Yeah, it didn’t take that long for the band to leave their Bay-Areasque predilections aside remnants of which were still around for “Moments Before Detonation”, the guys’ full-length debut that was largely another modern groove-infested banality. No such mini-resistance witnessed on “Diary of a Barfly” anymore that moved towards the more commercial sound of Rammstein, a transition further consolidated with the “Zeit” EP.

The embarrassing metamorphosis continued, but under a different name, Public Code, when the guys paraded as groove/metalcore hybriders, producing an isolated self-titled demo in 2004 before giving up the silly idea. Lethally poisonous was the beginning… a bit more than ridiculous the finale… but magickal will by all means be the sequel with the resuscitated Witches… sorry, Wicca intent on leaving more than just a scratch on the contemporary metal canvas.