Witchfynde. What a bad they were. Practically the “founding fathers” of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with an all too short, but oh so influential, career back in the 1970s when NWOBHM burst forwards. Remembered mostly for their all-time classic Give ‘Em Hell album. Still a personal favourite of mine all these years later.
Now there is more Witchfynde to enjoy. The bass player back then, Andro Coulton, somehow dug out the original master tape of a recording session the band did in Leicester all the way back in 1975. This pre-dates Give ‘Em Hell and until Andro found the master the songs cut at that session were previously unheard and unreleased. So what we have here is a real look back in time. It’s a phenomenal history lesson for an old NWOBHM fan like me. And a great voyage of discovery for any more “modern” heavy rock/metal fan who may like to know more about a band who went on to influence many – Metallica for example.
The tapes have been re-mastered and sound excellent. Five unreleased songs plus another two recorded in Coventry in 1977.
All the Witchfynde hallmarks are here in spades. The heavy bluesy riffs, tasty guitar work, hypnotic throbbing rhythm section and Steve Bridges’ fine vocals. It’s all proper, proper stuff which must be heard. A very pleasurable listen.
If you may not be familiar with Witchfynde, they had plenty going for themselves musically. Talented, heavy with a bit of a “doomy” feel in places, a bit bluesy and a bit dark. They could, as they show here, switch it all up with time and pace changes too giving the listener quite a journey. And write the anthemic stuff too just like Give ‘Em Hell.
The Lost Tapes shows that talent in development in its raw form over four decades ago. The liner notes tell us that the band hawked the tapes around lots of record companies in 1976 without success as their brand of burgeoning heavy metal/blues was not fashionable. It soon would be of course when NWOBHM exploded a couple of years later.
With the songs here being (until rediscovered by Andro) truly lost there are no videos of the band performing them for me to drop in here so you can have a look and a listen.
Instead – check out the Vyper Records web site and listen to the sound file of Halfway. Much enjoyment awaits your ears. A moody, dark, heavy slab of rocking goodness with a hypnotic feel to it.
The CD is available directly from Vyper Records too:
http://www.vyperrecords.com
And in more exciting NWOBHM-related news, the marvellous Vardis are imminently about to release a new EP titled 200MPH. I’ll get me paws on that ASAP when it is out and review here.
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