{"id":105334,"date":"2025-08-22T00:00:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T23:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=105334"},"modified":"2025-09-08T13:33:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T12:33:23","slug":"album-review-burning-witches-inquisition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-burning-witches-inquisition\/","title":{"rendered":"BURNING WITCHES – Inquisition (2025) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

BURNING WITCHES
\nInquisition<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nNapalm (2025)<\/span>
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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I can never quite decide if this all female Swiss group has under or over-achieved. With six studio albums under their belts now and always popular on the festival circuits, Burning Witches should be top tier heavy metal. However, even with their quality output I see them as mid-table metal at best.<\/p>\n

Inquisition<\/em>, just like previous albums, is strong and consistent. All the songs are good, but nothing more or less as the band walk through fire to achieve a sound that rests somewhere between Ice Earth, Testament, Vicious Rumours and classic heavy metal circa Dio.<\/p>\n

After a short intro of monk-like chanting (\u2018Sanguini Hominum\u2019), \u2018Soul Eater\u2019 comes crashing through the window. It\u2019s a furious display, the axe work of Courtney Cox and Romana Kalkuhl a furnace mesh of driving riffs and leads, but at times there is an issue with the mix. Burning Witches give everything for the cause; a snarling smorgasbord that results in such a fiery blend of Laura Guldemond\u2019s vocals and a striking Testament meets Iced Earth style of metal.<\/p>\n

There are some borderline thrash cuts to chew on if you like a more up-tempo style of aggression. The best of these is \u2018In For The Kill\u2019, a track that unleashes venom, particularly through the drums of Lala Frischknecht who is an absolute beast on this album.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always preferred the more aggressive side of Burning Witches because although the mid-tempo rocker \u2018In The Eye Of The Storm\u2019 and the lighter, more traditional \u2018The Spell Of The Skull\u2019 are decent enough, they just don\u2019t match the fury and energy of \u2018Mirror, Mirror\u2019. Even so, the band is still adept at crafting more subtle touches, especially through the restrained simmering of \u2018Release Me\u2019, and there\u2019s still some catchy mid-paced joy with \u2018Burn In Hell\u2019 and \u2018High Priestess Of The Night\u2019 with its spiralling leads.<\/p>\n

Inquisition<\/em> is Burning Witches doing what they do best, providing fluctuating heavy metal of power and shade without ever reaching the desired sweet spot.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BURNING WITCHES Inquisition Napalm (2025) Rating: 7\/10 I can never quite decide if this all female Swiss group has under or over-achieved. With six studio albums under their belts now and always popular on the festival circuits, Burning Witches should be top tier heavy metal. However, even with their quality output I see them as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5348],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-burning-witches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105336,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105334\/revisions\/105336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}