WITCHTRAP, Witching Metal (2000, NNYDA & Malignant)

The skull:
No sarcasm and no irony meant when I say: this is a great album cover. The slightly overhead view is nice, and the black borders to left and right lend an almost classy feel. The skull itself comes complete with occult symbols scattered around the cranium (evidently carved into the bone) and the missing teeth somehow don’t make the skull look too goofy. Perfect placement of the band’s cool logo, with album title and pentagram tucked into the lower right corner…yeah, it’s a work of effective artistic simplicity. I wish I had it on vinyl, but then I don’t really like the music much, so…guess I’ll worship it from afar.

The music:
In Witchtrap’s world, it’s 1986 all year, every year. This might as well be an Assassin demo or Morbid Saint rehearsal or any other such insane thrash metal. The Sodom reference of the EP title is appropriate and probably deliberate. These Colombians have studied their first-wave German thrash metal closely. They’re probably even the kind of guys who think albums like Persecution Mania and Terrible Certainty are sellouts. The recording is unadorned but holds lots of clarity. Well-captured mayhem, raw but not unlistenable, well-played but not too well-played. It’s just kind of pointless if you already own Protector and Vulcano albums, you know?
— Friar Wagner