Only in Germany! 31 years after their Walpurgis Night debut, Stormwitch issue their 10th album. Original singer Andy Mück has aligned himself with a new band (again) and offers nine new songs that last just 35 minutes. The digi-pak offers a pair of bonus tracks which brings the total to a more respectable (albeit still short, in the digital era) 48 minutes. Ironically, one of the extras is entitled “The Singer's Curse”. Showcasing a little of that Teutonic crunch that's absent elsewhere, wonder about the inspiration for that one, eh? A creaking door and Deutsche speaking crone introduce “Evil Spirit”, which has a Middle Eastern flare within. Musically, Stormwitch tend more towards hard rock than modern notions of metal, coming across as a similarly-minded Demon, Uriah Heep and/or Lucifer's Friend: big vocals, up front in the mix. See the keyboard ballad “Runescape”. Complete with echoing group vocal accompaniment, classical orchestration and (what appear to be) electronic drums, “Last Warrior” is the first bona fide metal composition, third song in. A faster moving, fuzz toned, bass heavy "At The End Of The World" is more like it, finally a guitar break. There's a bit more six-string action, to close out the otherwise pedestrian follow-up "Trail Of Tears". The final so-called bonus, “Different Eyes” is a piano ballad. Personally, I'll stick with my Beauty & The Beast CD, one of the first of that format I ever received.