3.4.1

Witches are a unique band in many ways: they are the first female-fronted metal act on French soil; they appeared in the mid-90’s with a blistering classic style defying all the laws of musical gravity; they threw a bridge between the more speed/thrash-fixated sound of acts like ADX and Killers and the more aggressive death metal-prone movement (Agressor, No Return, Massacra); their descents on the scene are very irregular, but they make sure they have at least one full-length or an EP released each decade…

The frontwoman Sibylle Colin-Tocquaine is an iconic persona on the French metal scene. She is the sister of Alex Colin-Tocquaine, the guitar player and vocalist of Agressor; obviously metal runs in the family’s veins… She is the first extreme female metal vocalist in France, and her aggressive brutal style put her right next to Sabine Classen (Holy Moses) as the “scariest” female vocalists on the field. By the way, the two are good friends and Sibylle often appears during Holy Moses’ concerts. She is also a guitar player which puts her a head and a shoulder above Sabine, and adds up more to her impressive resume.

Sybille started the band in the late-80’s, and a string of demos established them as one of the most brutal outfits from the French underground alongside Massacra, Loudblast, Nomed, Agressor, and No Return. They fell behind those bands, though, since they failed to produce an official release at the time, and when they succeeded in doing this, the scene had already mutated towards the aggro/groovy spectre. Another reason for that may have been Sybille’s short spell with the Italian progressive death metal masters Sadist for whom she performed behind the mike on their debut demo (“Black Screams”) in 1991.

The year is 1994, and the Witch(es) is finally on the spotlight with the album reviewed here. She serves over an hour of some of the finest retro progressive thrash during those gruesome times; which wastes no time bursting with the furious opener “Horror Museum” that will recall the more elaborate Hellwitch “atrocities” and Necrodeath’s “Fragments of Insanity”. Sybille’s unholy shouts may be a pullback for the more faint-of-heart, but this aggressive “silly symphony” can’t possibly have more suitable vocal support. The opener is followed by “Crystal”, a stylish technical lasher warming up the listener for the coming of “Mirror of Memories”, a 10-min progressive saga which begins with a sprawling atmospheric, balladic introduction before the band restore the thrashing rule with a portion of vitriolic intense riff-patterns the latter still interrupted by more attempts at serene balladisms.

After this ambitious opus the stylish “carnage” carries on with the polished “aggressor” “Black Sorcerer” and the slower crunchy stomper “And Then Came the White Lords”. “High History” is the other longer and more engaging stop from the roller-coaster with another prolonged balladic stroke where Sybille reveals her tender vocal side to a pretty positive effect. “3 Heroes” is blistering technical/progressive speed/thrash, a varied, constantly shifting times and tempos masterpiece its lofty purpose gracefully continued by “4 1 Goal”, another hyper-active technicaller with a cannonade of dazzling, overlapping rhythms and a very prominent bass bottom. The rest of the compositions follow the same shining example among which “The Eye” brutalizes the environment with a slab of less controlled deathy blast-beats; and the closer “Code Name: Experiments” is a really captivating blend of meditative atmospherics and intricate hard-hitting thrash.

This album is also a part of the Holy Triumvirate of best debuts from the French underground of the 90’s, the other two being “Aleister’s “Tribal Tech” released the same year, and Droys’ “And If”… (1998). It takes the middle ground between those two being much more classic-sounding than Aleister’s elaborate cold mechanics, and not as exuberantly technical as the Droys effort. Unlike the Agressor, Loudblast, and Massacra later works it strictly remains within the thrash metal confines, death metal merely assisting here and there to enhance the intensity. It has this uncanny, elusive aura which kind of hints at even more complex future exploits as though the band were holding on in the technical/progressive sector at this stage, with the intention on providing more such, or perhaps even more intriguing, niceties in the days to come…

Alas, not many were those old school defenders who managed to survive beyond the isolated one full-length, and Sybille and Co. were not an exception to this redundant rule. They still hung around long enough to release one more demo (“Mort Ne”) in 1997 which indeed showed the band moving towards more complicated, albeit less aggressive, landscapes. This process remained unfinished for whole ten years until Sybille teamed up with her faithful partner, the gifted guitarist Bernard-Yves Queruel, once again by bringing two session musicians for the bass and the drums to complete the line-up. The laconically-titled comeback album (“7”) continued Sybille’s infatuation with esoteric numerological science, and was also a logical sequel to the less brutal, more progressive delivery from the last demo. The short blitzkrieg pieces were decreased to a minimum for the sake of lengthy multi-layered compositions which to some may have been the better proposition.

The band were bracing themselves for another spell with the music industry, but the Sybille team suffered an irretrievable loss when Queruel left to join the resurrected heroes ADX. That inevitably brought everything to a halt again “the silence” broken seven years later with the “Agresive Symphony” compilation which assembled the band’s early demos from the late-80’s/early-90’s. Then literally out of nowhere a new material came out a few months later, the “The Hunt” EP, comprising six tracks of smashing headbanging old school thrash closing on just above 20-min; pure bliss for the diehard thrashers without too many technical ados. The “30 Years Thrashing” EP that followed suit was a commemoration of their 30th anniversary with four remastered cuts from their early days.

Sybille and her cohort are alive and well for sure; her spells will keep the band floating even on not very regular bases. She’s not on the hunt for new partners anymore at present as she has surrounded herself with some capable wizards… sorry, musicians including Olivier Herol from No Return. More magick will come out of their hands before long; one that will finally bring about a lucky number to erase the fluctuations in their “affair” with the music scene.