Give 'Em Hell

It's been a while since the heady days of NWOBHM, but Witchfynde still holds a place in heavy metal's collective conscience as a band who made underground history. Seen as one of the forerunners of so-called occult metal (not to say black metal itself), the quartet suffered a lot with unfavorable contracts and mismanaged labels, something that hindered the bands' career to a large extent. Still, they managed to conjure a small but respectable vinyl legacy, with six proper studio albums released to this day. The first full-length fruit of Witchfynde's studio activities would be 1980's "Give 'em Hell", released by Rondelet Records, a label that had no experience with metal acts prior to this point, being much more into punk rock than anything else.

It seems that Steve Bridges (V), Montalo (G), Andro Coulton (B) and Gra Scoresby (D) decided to fully adopt a satanic imagery pretty much while recording their debut LP, in a conscious effort to draw more attention - I suppose the smiling Baphomet visage at the front cover wouldn't pass unnoticed at your local record shop, you know. "Give 'em Hell" (the album, that is) may not be as scornful and malevolent as you might expect, but it surely does sound eerie like a record mastered at the very depths of hell (well, maybe not that much, but you get the idea). The production and mixing are raw, but it actually works in favour of the album instead of being detrimental to its merits, giving it a distinct underground feeling which adds to the overall atmosphere. And the "Powers That Be" nonsense actually works fine as a cohesive element, giving quasi-satanic leanings to tunes that originally were nothing of the sort.

Musically speaking, this record is not pure-blood black metal at all, being way more an hybrid of 70's Judas Priest, Black Sabbath and similar influences ("Ready to Roll", for instance, always sounded like a slightly more gloomy Thin Lizzy to me), with a few pinches of psychedelic rock here and there. And let's be fair: everything works mostly to good effect here, mostly on tracks such as "Unto the Ages of the Ages" and "Leaving Nadir", two excellent stabs at dark metal with astute tempo changes and a haunting atmosphere to keep you awake at night. While a song like "Pay Now - Love Later" is not exactly an homage to Lucifer, the twisting guitar licks and strong rhythm section are enough to connect it with the more devilish tunes in here. It's all pure NWOBHM, but with a biting taste of evilness which is all its own, even if the contents are not that evil in the first place.

Today's listeners may find the mid-paced delivery of most songs quite unexciting, and the not-totally-serious nature of Witchfynde's Satan-worshipping will perhaps strike the wrong chord with the ultra-tr00 attitude of most evil metal merchants out there. But you know, nearly all branches of metal derive from something done in the glorious days of NWOBHM, so I guess black and doom metal may indeed have a thing or two to do with Witchfynde - and "Give 'em Hell" would surely be the album to blame (praise?) in such a case. Enjoy it with the lights out, but be sure to lock all doors and windows first, as who knows what kind of naughty creatures it can conjure.

Though the band is often criticized for using sinister, occult imagery on their records which the music itself doesn't seem to support, there can be no denial that Witchfynde produced some damn fine heavy metal records in the early phase of their career. Specifically, the first four albums, of which the two 1980 efforts were their best. Give 'Em Hell was one such effort (the other being the great Stagefright), and it's a good start for the band, with some excellent guitar work, and fantastic production that remains fresh to my ears in 2009.

Witchfynde was neither as heavy as Venom and Iron Maiden nor as radio starved as Def Leppard and Tygers of Pan Tang; they compare more favorably to the styles of Saxon, Diamond Head and Girlschool. The riffs on tracks like the opener "Ready to Roll" and bluesy Joan of Arc tribute "The Divine Victim" are fantastic, and the title track "Give 'Em Hell" is pure heavy metal. Slower tracks like "Leaving Nadir" and "Unto the Ages of the Ages" are dark and mystical, yet laden with the bluesy rock traditional of 70s ballads. "Pay Now - Love Later" is a smutty, catchy hard track, and pretty much the only song of the seven that I didn't fall for was "Gettin' Deavy".

The vocals of Steve Bridges are cruel and cutting though melodic enough to compare with other big NWOBHM singers. What I truly love are the guitars, which are always ready to spring something cool on you, like the ringing chords in the middle of "Pay Now - Love Later" that arch over the ascending bass scale. Though the afficionado of early heavy metal will appreciate the tone and writing of this album, and Stagefright, they might be difficult for younger metal fans who are only accustomed to modern studio efforts and blazing power metal. But if you yearn for something sincere and almost 30 years old, Witchfynde (at least their early work) does belong in the pantheon alongside by Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Venom, Saxon, and Motorhead.

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“…if the powers that be tell you there never were three wise men, then you’d better believe it’s true…”

I pretty much always give this band the ‘ol stiff arm whenever I come across them. I throw most blame on their ’84 stinker Lords of Sin, an album gripped with a moniker, title, and werewolf-y jacket that should’ve incinerated me with a flamethrower’s force, something to gleefully plop my ashes along side Venom or Slayer in the spitting hellfire they conjured all too well. C’mon, look at the year. Nope. Sounded like Donny Osmond compared to what I thought should’ve been sizzling my speakers. Seeing my hopes lying smashed on the rocks and within singe distance of my adolescent wrath, Witchfynde wisely retreated to the darkened confines of my stuffed bedroom closet. Yeah, I’m sure they were real scared of me. Biting the bullet some time later after realizing vocalist Luther Beltz came as late as their ’83 Cloak and Dagger lp (and that they actually had earlier albums), I picked up the band’s back catalog, not without wincing, of course.

I like to believe I’m not in the minority as I admit my surprise to see the four-piece were spewing forth their own brand of hellfire, however paltry, as old n’ dear as 1980, technically during the same time as Venom’s despicably premature vision and right along the steely timeline of Maiden, and this album’s eerie, devilish cover pretty much sealed the pact with a diabolic grin that’s basically unwarranted. I definitely can’t say I was overwhelmed upon first spin, but since then I’ve come to terms with this era of Witchfynde. Terms. As much as I’d like to enjoy this band more, the terms are the less endearing kind. I can’t look upon the cover and not think of a conjuration that could’ve smoked with promise, something truly misty and menacing, like Cirith Ungol unsheathing the doom of Pentagram, or a more haunted Angel Witch heat-treated in the creepy brimstone of Coven. Instead, I feel about this the way I feel about acts like Black Widow, debut-era Demon, Lucifer (either one), and, yeah, Coven - relatively jipped. But what can I say? Not everyone had that kind of vision, especially a new band, and with most groups barely locating metal’s swimming pool, hard rock albums like Back in Black and Women and Children First were practically our lifeguards.

So there we are watching the festivities. Side one of Give ‘em Hell stretches and bounces confidently at the top of the diving platform with best track “Ready to Roll”, and from this vantage point things don’t look half bad, but soon after it’s a slo-mo belly flop in action. I mean, the take-off is fine – the gait has sturdy forward momentum, the trajectory seems on par and is firmed up by a fairly heady guitar tone, giving Steve Bridges’ easily standard voice something to leap from - but then comes the very controlled rotation of “The Divine Victim”, “Leaving Nadir”, and sadly mistranslated “Gettin’ Heavy”, a song that sneers at its namesake even while Bridges screams the title, seemingly content on drooping aimlessly and airlessly, and in reverse order the tracks hit the water hard with legs askew.

Get ‘em. Bring ‘em to shore. Don’t worry about the first track. It’s doing well enough on its own. Mouth-to-mouth is up to you, the listener, but they’re not worth my breath.

To the dejected gasps of onlookers, side two climbs the stairs. Luckily, it’s more inventive with its style, at least for one track. The first on the board is the stronger title cut, a close second to top scoring and still breaststroking “Ready to Roll”, and follows its lead with a brisk, uncomplicated rock-like step of its own, meanwhile screeching the title is a chorus determined to fling the whole thing closer to the deep end. “Unto the Ages of the Ages” wears the most eclectic swimsuit; half of it swirled unexpectedly in psychedelic colors that washed out somewhere around ’75, knocked silly by loudly echoed vocals, noisy, feedback-ish wails, and tribal stickwork as Bridges (almost epically) declares the band’s name a few times, and here we have the band’s heaviest, most unorthodox moments. “Pay Now – Love Later” probably isn’t the greatest follow-up and album ender as it paddles around more commercial ends, but is still asses and elbows above side one’s tragic triune. And just to show that the band isn’t all horns and hellhounds (which is glaringly obvious by now), outroing the disc is a negligible little slapsticker of an old west piano number that sounds like it’s from the ‘40s. Wonderful.

Okay, we get that Give ‘em Hell isn’t the wettest album of uncertain ’80, and balanced next to Angel Witch’s same year stab at darkness, the lp is metallically and spiritually weaker and comparably only stumbles through the blackness they’re supposedly conveying, but at least it’s a bit more worthy than Belgian Killer’s Ready for Hell, which doesn’t say much. It doesn’t pack the criminally unspoken of and surprisingly punchy punch of Tygers of Pan Tang’s debut, or the panache of Accept’s I’m a Rebel, but it beats out Nightwing’s debut sitting ovation. I could do this all day and the album probably wouldn’t pull ahead of half of its full-length peers, yet it annihilates its same year follow-up, *peers at Stage Fright with visual fear*, a scary fact of life in itself.

“…into clouds of darkness, blood red in stone, silver crows screamin’ loud, knights of fire stand alone…”

When talking about a genre such as NWOBHM, up-tempo, simplistic, riff-based and above all THE cheese are things that come to mind first. However, in this nostalgia-drenched and often dismissed domain of metal, there are moments when you can actually listen to the music without being horrendously wasted or tuned to the absurd spandex-loving mindset.

With Witchfynde's debut album this is the case. Give 'Em Hell is a killer package of uncompromising British metal, however omitting embarrasing lyrics and song titles, and most importantly the wheels-of-steel-rock-brigade-atmosphere which so plagues NWOBHM. Witchfynde's opening LP keeps it consistent, straightforward and metallic. No extra bullshit featured

Admittedly, there are elements that some might consider ridicilous and/or fromage. The lyrics, for example, are ridden with satanic references as is the associated imagery. But as we're talking about a metal album, á la Venom, this is far more acceptable and less cheesy compared to what Saxon and Def Leppard would preach in the year 1980.

What justifies the high mark given to the album is its timelessness compared to other NWOBHM bands. Whereas Wheels of Steel from Saxon and Leppard's debut sound distinctly 80s, incorporating features in the mix and in the music itself, that would plague mainstream metal for the coming decade, Give 'Em Hell sounds unique and much more accessible after all these years.

Much of this owes to the dry and somewhat raw, lo-fi sound of the album. The album reeks the sound of the late 70s, echo kept to the minimum and guitars kept low in the mix. And all this is covered in the tasty mud of budget recording. The mud ain't nearly as bad (or as lovely, as I'd see it) as with Venom's Welcome To Hell. How cliché it might sound, I still go on to say that muddiness and rawness sound actually appealing and refreshing in this era of hi-fi and upscale studio engineering.

If you liked Venom's Welcome To Hell and appreciated the slight nwobhm edge it contained, then you'd appreciate this too. Note, though, this only applies to nwobhm, no black metal/punk edge is to be found.