The last few years saw several re-releases of the old records that Swedish Heavy Metal veterans AXEWITCH released in the first half of the 1980s, as well as a new album from the revived band two years ago. Now we have this brand new record called “The Last Of A Dying Breed” with the meaningful subtitle “40 Years In Metal”. Of course this subtitle is true, as the band started in 1981, but it also implies that it features no new music. Taking a closer look, the cover reveals a hype imprint that states “old classics re-recorded”. The tracklist reveals the mellowness of the songs featured. No less than five of the nine songs were originally found on the album “Lord Of The Flies” that celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, plus two songs each are from the “Pray For Metal” EP and the second AXEWITCH album “Visions Of The Past”. For good reasons, songs from the final, pretty tame and commercial album “Hooked On High Heels” were omitted. As far as I am concerned, re-recordings of classic songs or even albums are mostly a real pain in the ass. Some bands even ruined their reputation completely by doing self-covers, ask MANOWAR about that. But in the case of this AXEWITCH album, the re-recordings are quite okay with me, maybe because I never listened to the band much back in their days. For those who don’t know the Swedes: AXEWITCH played some old-fashioned Heavy Metal on the albums on which these songs originally appeared. Somewhere between early ACCEPT, good old JUDAS PRIEST and SAXON. It’s especially the latter who left more than a mark on the sound of AXEWITCH, as the vocals of Anders Wallentoft really remind me of Biff Byford here. And a song like ‘Stand Up’ is pure SAXON worship. So if that sounds unspectacular to you, it definitely is. Yet AXEWITCH also stands for solid songwriting and solid musicianship. These crafts, combined with a quite fine, not overproduced recording quality make “The Last Of A Dying Breed: 40 Years In Metal” a nice listening experience for any lover of old fashioned Heavy Metal and old geezers like me. And maybe this album is all you ever need to have from AXEWITCH, at least from their early years. Visit the band at www.facebook.com/axewitch or their label at www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063235868703