Secrets Of The Witching Hour - The Crimea

We'd just come back from holiday last night and, while I was trawling through my backlog of mail, I noticed a message about Secrets Of The Witching Hour, the second album by The Crimea. What was unusual about it was the fact that the band have released the album for free over the internet. So off I went straight away and downloaded it as I already had their debut album, Tragedy Rocks, which I really liked.

If you want to download Secrets Of The Witching Hour just go to The Crimea official site and follow the obvious links. It's not a huge download, with 11 tracks and lasting just under 37 minutes, it comes in at under 35Mb and it even comes with CD cover artwork. However, if you want the better audio quality offered from a CD version, and of course the option to digitize it to a format other than MP3, it's on sale from the band's official site shop. Here's the track list…

• All Conquering
• The 48A Waiting Steps
• Raining Planets
• Man
• Bombay Sapphire Coma
• Don’t Close Your Eyes On Me
• Loop A Loop
• Light Brigade
• Several Thousand Years Of Talking Nonsense
• Requiem Aeternam
• Weird

The band, who don't currently have a record label, have basically financed the album by themselves and are releasing it for free in a bold move to try and widen their fan base and in so doing increase sales of upcoming concert tickets and merchandise. They're the first reasonably well known band to do this and with the record sales industry facing serious changes, it may be a trend other artists follow if it proves successful.

As for the music, if you liked the excellent Tragedy Rocks, then I don't doubt that you'll like this too. My daughter saw them at T In The Park last year, bought the first album right away and got me hooked as well. I suppose I'd class The Crimea as a pop-rock band and Secrets Of The Witching Hour has a pretty catchy mix of beautifully melodic tunes with great vocals and lyrics. I'm listening to it (again) as I write this and my head's bobbing away.

It's one of those albums that grows on you as you listen to it more and more. Give it a try, it's free!