Kev Rowland Burning Witches are an all-female quintet from Switzerland, and I do wonder if they would have managed to get signed to label as powerful as the mighty Nuclear Blast if their gender hadn’t been a factor. Girlschool were/are a mighty metallic force to be reckoned with, and have released some stunning albums over the years, but Burning Witches have returned with their second release with something that, at best, can be said to be both pedestrian and boring. Here is a band destined only ever to be the support on tours, and not the headline, unless there is a significant change in their approach. They come across more like a modern-day German power metal outfit than anything else, but without the force and dynamics. The sound is really very good, but when that is the best thing on an album then one has to start to worry.

Get all the way through to the end and one comes across the only cover on the album, Dio’s mighty “Holy Diver”. At least in some ways this shows how important the performance is, as in terms of notes this is fairly similar to the original, but in terms of how it is played it really is chalk and cheese. I have nothing against female singers, or female bands in general, to me it is all about the music and in this case the album is sadly lacking. It may not be awful, but there is nothing here that makes me think they will ever make it out of the middle of the second division.