WICKED WITCH – Wicked Witch Of Boston (previously unreleased)
Before his time fronting Savatage and his own band Circle II Circle, vocalist Zak Stevens was in a band out of Boston called WICKED WITCH alongside future Savatage band mate drummer Jeff Plate. Wicked Witch was formed in 1989 when guitarist Matt Leff met Stevens at the Musicians Institute. They recorded several songs over a few years, none of which made it to a proper album release… until now.
20th Century Music, known for their reissues of rarities, just released the CD “Wicked Witch Of Boston“, a limited edition CD including the sessions the band did with Bob St. John (Extreme, Duran Duran, etc) and Paul David Hager (Van Halen, Devo, etc).
The 20th Century Music label has at long last collected the available Wicked Witch recordings on one self-titled compilation. It’s titled “Wicked Witch of Boston”, which I have to guess is for some legal reason.
These recordings are quite raw demos, and I do mean raw. The label obviously put some effort into restoring and remastering these recordings, and the result is pretty satisfactory.
In terms of musical style, Wicked Witch played hard rock that was very much in keeping with the late ‘80s and early ‘90s trends. Not quite glammed-up hair metal, but not heavy metal either.
It’s melodic hard rock along the lines of a keyboard-less House of Lords, Winter Rose and maybe Tora Tora.
I’m a big Zak Stevens fan, so hearing this early, pre-Savatage material is a welcome development even if the sound is in demo quality.
It’s definitely worthwhile if you like his singing, or are just into finding obscure and unreleased ‘80s hard rock.
A Limited Edition of 1,000 copies.
Highly Recommended
01 – Fly Away
02 – Rainbow’s End
03 – Love Lies
04 – Live and Let live
05 – Danger Game
06 – Love Teacher
07 – Lost in Confusion
08 – Soul to Fire
09 – This Time
10 – Breakdown
11 – Just a Game
12 – The Moment
13 – Midnight Rain
Zak Stevens (Circle II Circle, ex-Savatage) – Vocals
Jeff Plate (Trans-Siberian Orchestra, ex-Savatage) – Drums
Matt Leff (ex-Machines of Grace) – Guitars
Mark Stewart – Bass
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Thank You!!!