If you only like hip and up to date music, stop reading right now. If your cd player never gets any rest because of the constant thunder of loud and highspeed music, stop reading now. If you do not apreciate the music of the 60's and 70's, take off. If your idea of the 70's is the latest Brittish pop act or another The Hives clone, byebye. Cause when I think of the 70's, I like to imagine myself in a smokey and dusty room with old ragety curtains, grey carpet and sober interior, with a nice hifi set as the center piece to the room. And on the record player, an album that sounds very much like Witchcraft's new album Firewood.

Coming straight out of the current number one Rock n Roll country, Sweden, Witchcraft have just released their second superb album that will blast away a nice portion of the Doomies and Stonies in europe, and hopefully beyond. An album that is the very reincarnated soul of Black Sabbath, with the feel of Jefferson Airplane, and the drive of Pentagram. And as far as I am concerned, the very best release of this year to date.

Carying us through ten songs, Firewood presents the superb talent of these four relatively young rockers. The entire disc sounds like that foggy room with it's dusty interior and ragety curtains. And as hard as it is to breath in that room through all the smoke, you remain there, to hear this album till the final note. You are pretty convinced of this from the first tone of Chylde Of Fire. And when Magnus Pelander's crystal and vulnerable vocals blow some fresh air through the smoke you decide that this is actually the only excuse to ever leave this room again. To buy a copy of Firewood that is!

Absolute highlights are spotted whilst listening to the beautiful If Wishes Were Horses, the epic Wooden Cross, the very Sabbathish Queen Of Bees (without a doubt my favorite song off' this album), Merlin's Daughter has the finest song kick-off on the album, I See A Man makes you suspicious that this actually is a Sabbath record you are listening to, same goes for the fantastic You Suffer and the close down song Attention!

Let me conclude that it is a mystery to me how a band anno 2005 can sound so very much 1969. Did they record it on old equipment? Is someone in the band secretly friends with Tony Iommi? Were they born during the playback of a Pentagram record whilst Messhiah of Candlemass was attending? Are they injected with Bill Ward's saliva? Do they own the world's only time-machine? It is anyone's guess but it sounds like a dusty LP out of the 70's to me. And I love it. Witchcraft should be playing all the festivals that atrackt a rockers audience. And you have to hear it.

Best "doom-and-beyond" record in years, best allround album of this year, and I would be surprised if anyone is going to beat them off this spot. Albums that feature not one lesser track to the listing are rare and oughtta be praised. 90 points is very much justified, I can only hope any new work from these Sweeds will make me share bigger scores than this. Epic!!

Tracklist:

01. Chylde Of Fire
02. If Wishes Were Horses
03. Mr Haze
04. Wooden Cross (I Can't Wake The Living Dead)
05. Queen Of Bees
06. Merlin's Daughter
07. I See A Man
08. Gorrow Evoker
09. You Suffer
10. Attention!

Band Line-Up:

Magnus Pellander > Vocals, Guitar
Ola Hendrikson > Bass
Jonas Arnesén > Drums
John Hoyles > Guitar