Burning Witches at The Louisville Billiards Club in Louisville, KY 27-MAY-22

June 4, 2022 Michael Deinlein Concert Reviews Comments Off

BurningWitches-LouisvilleBilliardsClub-Louisville_KY-MichaelDeinlein-20220527 (424)

Burning Witches set Louisville ablaze with Devil Be My Judge and Blood and Steel.

It’s Friday evening leading into the long Memorial Day weekend and Louisville is bustling with entertainment opportunities. Tonight, kicks off the start of the annual Forecastle Music Festival on the great lawn, Abbey Road on The River is in full swing on the Indiana side of Big Four Pedestrian Bridge, The Louisville Bats weekend long homestand, Louisville City FC hosting Tulsa along with several other live music events occurring over the long weekend. With all of this going on in the city a gem of a show was occurring in the Fern Creek area of Louisville at The Louisville Billiards Club where the Swiss/Dutch Heavy Metal Band Burning Witches were set Invade Louisville.

Touring in support of their most successful album to date, The Witch of The North (released last May) and touring America for the first time EVER (supporting The Iron Maidens), Burning Witches squeezed in 3 headlining shows on their “American Domination Tour” at the end of their run (in Indiana, Louisville, and North Carolina) before returning home that Louisville metal fans sure didn’t miss.

Blasting onto the Louisville Stage with fury and vengeance, Burning Witches wasted no time amping up the energy in the room! Starting their set with “Executed,” “Wings of Steel” and the title track from their 2020 album “Dance With The Devil” Burning Witches were nothing but energy. Vivacious frontperson Laura Guldemond along with guitarists Romana Kalkuhl and Larissa Ernst along with bassist Jeanine Grob were a dazzling blur of screaming vocals, sizzling guitar riffs and a never-ending sea of hair whips that an energetic crowd of Louisville mettalers thoroughly enjoyed.

For more than an hour Burning Witches rolled through songs from their entire discography including the title tracks from their 2018 album Hexenhammer and their most recent release, 2021’s The Witch of the North with the same relentless energy they started their set off with. Burning Witches closed out their main set with two songs from their 2015 Burning Alive album “Black Widow” and “Burning Witches” before treating fans with an ripping encore cover of Dio’s “Holy Diver” that capped off an awesome evening of metal!

Providing the main support this evening was Kentucky’s original Thrash/Doom Metal group Devil Be My Judge. Taking advantage of every moment of their time on stage and the escalating energy in the room Devil Be My Judge catapulted into their opening songs “Steamroller” and “Pig”. Taking a brief minute to take a drink and let everyone catch their collective breaths, singer Dave Wollums introduces the next song stating, “We don’t own the rights of this next song, but we definitely are approved to play it” as a fiery cover of Crowbar’s “Planet’s Collide” comes pouring from the stage before finishing with “Abandoned/Breakdown”. Devil Be My Judge was nothing but energy from the opening notes of their opening song and proved to be a perfect prelude to what was still to come.

A few changes in the Devil Be My Judge line-up over the past few months now has new members bassist RV Byooj and guitarist Jamie McNeil joining front man Dave Wollums, guitarist Chadwick Pryor and drummer Kamron Dickens.

Starting things off this evening were Louisville Kentucky based melodic heavy metallers Blood and Steel. Formed in 2019, Blood and Steel features vocalist/guitarist Ado along with Dan Fike on drums and bassist Jimmy Welcher. Their 30 minute set featured songs “Legend of Khazar,” “Honor The Fallen’” and “Sacrifice” before ending with “Deception”.