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Twenty-five years, that’s how long Sweden’s Witchery have been around and their eighth album, Nightside, is my first time hearing them. They’ve been slugging out blackened thrash for a lot longer than most of the bands in this genre today and have a confident style of their own. I can’t speak to their earlier albums, but the songs on Nightside aren’t uniformly as fast as some of the other bands calling themselves "speed metal" these days, rather they are fast in a Motörhead/Venom way. "Witching Hour" certainly moves along a good clip, as does "Popecrusher" and especially "A Forest of Burning Coffins," but other tracks like "Storm of the Unborn" and "Left Hand March" have a more deliberate pace. None of the songs have really stuck in my brain, but I enjoy the entirety of Nightside while it is on, so there are no duds or weak spots. As black/thrash albums go, Nightside doesn’t break any new ground but it’s also different from the onslaught of speed you often get today. If you’re in the mood for something with a little groove to mix with your blinding ferocity, Nightside is an album to check out.