Search - Witchfynde :: Give Em Hell

NWOBHM nugget

Bloodbath_and_Beyond | usa | 04/11/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"1980 was really the year for heavy metal with classics like Ace Of Spades, Back In Black, Women & Children First, Iron Maiden, and British Steel all popping up. The NWOBHM in England however was the major scene for metalheads at the time, bands all over the place were popping up, playing and releasing singles and LP's; the most prolific bands obviously being metal masters like Saxon, Angel Witch, Girlschool, Venom, Tygers Of Pan Tang, Grim Reaper, Tank, and the most famous of which, Maiden, Leppard, Priest, and Motothead) However there are still some bands that remain a little under the radar, among them are Witchfynde. Issuing their own debut album Give 'Em Hell in that same great year, Witchfynde are a large curiosity to any self respecting metal fan. This is definetly an album to dig for. After the first listen to this album, the first thing you get is this group obviously had a lot more ambition for a wider sound, they are basically Sabbath plus Rush. Of course they have the obvious heavy rocking guitar sound well in check, and the obvious platter of cliched heavy up tempo rockers (Ready To Roll, the title track, and the very of it's time Pay Now-Love Later. These songs seem to cater to the kind of arena rock/hard rock audiance everyone from Ted Nugent to Nazareth and Foghat were pulling just as much as Motorhead. Although these are pretty great songs either way. Despite this, the coolest thing about Witchfynde, is their more adventerous side. Tracks like The Divine Victim (about Joan of Arc) while offering plenty of multi sectioned metal proficiency ala Sabbath or Zeppelin also display an interesting more progressive rock tendency and songwriting (Rush all over). And one is even more bound to draw comparisons with the bands signature song (a fav among early era metal fans) Leaving Nadir. This is quite a brilliant little song and it's a shame the band never did anything this inspired again. The band seems to enjoy employing the usual Satanic underpinnings of many a band from the time and though it does date the record a bit, it's more of a fond rememberance rather than a bleak one. Unto The Ages Of Ages follows the same formula however it's a little less memorable but still something hard to follow for these kinds of bands. One of the most rarely mentioned stand out cuts is Gettin' Heavy. Yeah, this track churns out more of the silly bombast for metalheads style but it brings something more melodic and packs a helluva hook. The 2004 reissue on Lemon records features 3 bonus songs, bringing the full tracklisting out to 10 songs as the orignal record only had 7 (think long songs that could only fit a 40 min vinyl disc) They're also pretty good, Wake Up Screaming especially. Though it's not mentioned if these songs were recorded during the albums sessions (you couldn't tell even if it wasn't however it makes it obvious that they were after a few listens) only of note is that they are 'previously unreleased'. Infamous metal writer from the early days, Geoff Barton provides great liner notes, it was this guy indeed who coined the phrase New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, and its still great to see him involved in this not so dead piece of hard rock history. Although it won't align itself up with the classics from Motorhead or Priest, or Diamond Head, it's defiently a great album and Wichfynde would only continue to drown themselves into more of the progressive territory found on this album, whilst injecting a more commercial sound. This was their best moment as poor backing from their label would close the casket on them."