Given the fact that Marta Gabriel is able to play just about every instrument on any given album, it was only a matter of time she would do just that after Crystal Viper called it quits last year. Though I have to say that it was quite a surprise that she also plays drums on the debut album of her solo project. For the project, she revives her old stage name under the slightly different spelling of Leatherwitch. ‘First Spell’ is a promising debut full of material that could have been released under the Crystal Viper banner, but has a slightly different feel.

Whoever is familiar with Gabriel’s work so far should know what to expect. ‘First Spell’ is full of very traditional, early eighties-styled heavy metal. The album even feels a little bit more old school than most of Crystal Viper’s work, because there are hardly any power metal elements to be found here. They are there, but it’s the very early type of power metal, rather than what people think of as power metal today. Think pre-Kiske Helloween or Running Wild’s better efforts. The CD version of ‘First Spell’ even contains a well-performed cover of Helloween’s ‘Ride the Sky’.

One thing ‘First Spell’ has over many Crystal Viper albums, with the exception of their debut and ‘The Cult‘, is its flow. It features a highly dynamic mix of urgent uptempo songs like ‘Beast Inside’ or the borderline speed metal of ‘Two Tons of Steel’ one on end, and more subdued, but still quite energetic tracks on the other, such as the NWOBHM-esque ‘Bound by the Night’, the epic ‘The New Beginning’ and the eighties hard rock of closer ‘In the Middle of the Night’. Album highlight ‘Silver Stallions’ finds a nice middle ground by being fairly speedy, but also very classy in its elaborate arrangement.

My only issue with ‘First Spell’ is how the album sounds, and it was something I was apprehensive about ever since finding out that Enforcer main man Olof Wikstrand was going to be mixing the album. No one will deny his expertise at crafting a convincing old school sound, but it’s a sound that doesn’t really work for this material. The drums sound like cardboard boxes drenched in reverb – the snare in particular – and they overpower everything in the mix, at the expense of the guitars, which end up sounding too thin, and even Gabriel’s typically excellent vocal performance.

Apart from that, ‘First Spell’ is a fantastic debut album by a project that I hope will last as long as Crystal Viper did. It’s a no-brainer for anyone who enjoyed Marta Gabriel’s previous band, but ‘First Spell’ is more than a continuation of that band with a different name slapped on its front cover. Also, for something basically recorded by someone on her own – only for the guitar solos did she bring on former Crystal Viper mate Giuseppe Taormina and Sabbat guitarist Tomohiro ‘Ginoir’ Hagi – it’s surprising how live and band-like the album sounds.

Recommended tracks: ‘Silver Stallions’, ‘Two Tons of Steel’, ‘Beast Inside’