Damnation Alley

Savage Master fans are in for a treat - and, if lucky, a trick - with L.A.'s Bitch and its kick-ass, one-off discography gem, Damnation (v)Alley, as the 1982 Metal Blade Records EP sounds a whole helluva lot like something said contemporary Louisville sluggers would churn out.

Right off the bat, opener "Saturdays" lewdly sashays and shuffles its way into the fray with dryly prattled drum and bass alongside crunchy, mid-distorted electric guitar, the lambasting lot of it topped by Betsy B.'s comprehensible - and perhaps a mite reprehensible - mid-range, currish vocals. Assuredly, Girlschool, The Plasmatics and Rock Goddess selenites owe it to themselves to, er, take the plunge.

A briefer, "Rock Patrol" (by Montreal's Rusted) reminiscent "Never Come Home" ensues; its rollicking, happy-go-lucky, shimmying stride brings forth a mild rockabilly feel, whilst its free-for-all, fandangling lead compels fair-haired share of sullied, squelching returns. EP highlight "Damnation Alley" proper cuts this raunchy affair down the middle, and I'll be gosh darn fulminated if its bumptiously writhing n' grinding bass line/appositely mashing rhythm fails to instill ineluctably rocking catharsis within listeners, at large. A super solid humdinger, no-how - likely the boudoir formation's ultimate apotheosis, its seizing, albeit brief, sizzler of a solo, notwithstanding.

Invariably, however, we're stuck with a most tumescent and trite, honky-tonk piece of utter butt flap claptrap in "He's Gone". It's rather hard to take or endure; so, the less said, the better. (Besides, I believe my good colleague, Gutterscream, already aired out the sauna in such regard. Effectively, it's no genial "Country Girl" by RJD-helmed Black Sabbath!). Sabire heralding closer "Live For The Whip" surprisingly evokes spot-on dead-ringer for Budgie's mega-memorable "Breadfan" staple, all the way unto lascivious cat-o-nine injunction (again, so mesmerically put forth by G-Scream).

Right there, you've another, totally irresistible vantage point...

Bitch are one of the many American heavy metal bands from the early 80's that kind of went under the radar. They are really often only mentioned as having been a band that played with Slayer early on. This is very unfortunate as Bitch is a very good entity of and on their own, with plenty of great tunes.

The music here is pretty much your standard heavy metal of the early 80's. It is moderately heavy with pretty clean production. A few of the songs, particularly the opener "Saturdays" Has a very Girlschool type vibe to it, also being pretty fast with pulverising drums. I am very fond of the drumming on this EP. The musicians here are all quite competent and keep things together nicely. Last but not least is the singer Betsy, who is also quite the character. She has a very clean, yet very powerful voice which is slightly on the lower register. The only thing I will say is that while she has a good voice, she unfortunately doesn't have a great deal of range. She also likes to incorporate a lot of the S&M thing into her appearance and the song lyrics. The song "Live For The Whip" is so blatantly evident of this as to go as far as to have the sound of a whip cracking and Betsy moaning over it.

While I wouldn't exactly call Bitch a legendary band, they certainly managed to put out some quality music in their time. Bitch would try in later years to become more accessible sounding, even going as far as to re-name themselves Betsy, but that did not do anything to further their career. It is lucky for us and them that it is this that they are remembered for, and not that.

“…you’ve got your Saturdays to play…”

As the first band found rummaging through Brian Slagel’s garage without being surrounded by compilation crowds, Bitch’s debut ep, released in Dec. ’82 (along with Demon Flight’s Flight of the Demon ep), marks Metal Blade’s initial jaunt out of fruitful Metal Massacre territory. Yeah, Bitch took side one, song two on the first Metal Massacre with “Live For the Whip”, a track that’s reincarnated with a slightly different face (and w/o bassist Richard Zusman) on the ep, a strong though somewhat repetitive tune, but did it prove Bitch was an act that had distanced itself from its compilation competition? Well, on the compilation were two future major label enlistees in Black n’ Blue and Malice (the latter of which has two tracks that I’m assuming was to take up the slack Steeler (US) and Ratt left when they were ousted from the original first pressing). There’s the already battle-proven Cirith Ungol scorching the start of side two. Then two soon-to-be-Metal Bladers Demon Flight and Pandemonium and an Avatar that would disappear in a flash of octane. Oh yeah, and Metallica. Some pretty tough challengers considering all but Avatar made a dent somewhere however small, but Bitch wasn’t the most weak-kneed of the bunch. Basically, this leathery quintet was right on target with the times, and that was just fine with most fans.

Betsy and her fundamentally-capable entourage of future Killen guitarist David Carruth and drummer Rob Settles and west coast Overkill bassist Ron Cordy motor along with a dog collared, mild bruiser image that at this time hadn’t felt the full cat-o-nines of their S&M motif, punky in its simplistic arrangements and attitude, but at the same time threw hints of intricacy around for that NWOBHM bit o’ confusion. With one of those throaty, big girl voices, Betsy comes across like a chunkier Pat Benatar who’s unwilling to haul off with high notes and the chick that dueted with Meat Loaf on his Bat Out of Hell lp; a meaty, would-be heartbreaker with her cleavage in your face.

Really, there’s only one song here that lives up to the band’s now-known pleasure n’ pain reputation. “Live For the Whip” starts more like Mythra’s “Killer” for that British touch, but is also actively integrated into the appealing fast/slow display of disparity that see-saws the main rhythm where Settles’s cymbals crash from all angles, minting up the stylishly bluesy and boring bad taste “He’s Gone” can leave in one’s mouth; if she subjected me to this snoozer more than two and a half times I’d be gone too. The rest of the disc is acceptable without being all that exceptional as catchy, half-caste “Never Come Home” is sandwiched between energetic and somewhat corny-lyriced opener “Saturdays” and the dirtier, stone-ground rumbler of a title tune.

Be My Slave, the group’s follow-up full-lengther, is slapped around by more of the famed Bitch notoriety that would also kick their live shows around.

Enjoyable, yet less musically memorable than as a personal Metal Blade landmark. Hell, I’d consider that novelty an honor.

Heh, now this would be what I call a fun band.

Bitch doesn't rely on amazing instrumental virtuosity, or clever compositions, nor should they rely on the vocal skills of Betsy (heck she sings false half the time). However they went strong largely on image.

Tong-in-cheeck of course, and considering our day and age they were hardly shocking at all, and far from extreme.

Actually I shouldn't bagatelize their musical abilities. The opener 'Saturdays' is a pretty solid (rock & roll) song (with metal-riffs). The refrain is pretty catchy, just like the rest of the song actually, only they could've cut out 15 seconds from the middle IMO.
The second track 'Never Come Home' even could've scored a top-hit if you ask me (I don't know if it actually did or any of the other songs did..), with the decent vocals.
Damnation Alley is solid metal, although some of the limits of Betsy's voice come a bit to the foreground here. On the other hand she adds a unique feel to the song this way. Can't say I dislike the song!
'He's Gone' really is the only lesser track on this EP, a bit non-interesting, country-ish rock.
'Live For The Whip', the closing track, is just simply funny, although this would be the most shocking part of the whole EP, including the improvised whipping-sounds and Betsy's moaning.

Bitch never was one of the greats, but if you see this EP lying around in a store near, buy it.