Right back in the early days as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal was emerging, Witchfynde were one of the trailblazers with a remarkable debut album entitled Give ‘Em Hell.
The bassist for Witchfynde at the time was Andro Coulton.
Andro left the ‘Fynde in 1980 and within a matter of days had formed Malleus. Whilst Malleus didn’t take off then the band has remained in Andro’s consciousness and now have released their first album – Your Nightmare Calls.
NWOBHM delayed by thirty odd years as the songs on the album were mostly written around 1980ish and retain the NWOBHM spirit.
And being a bit of an innovator, the USP is Andro’s “three octave lead bass” technique which is much in evidence pulsing along strongly.
Your Nightmare Calls is a worthy debut for Malleus. The songs are powerfully delivered with a dark, doomy, brooding undertone to them yet are quite melodic and catchy at the same time. Sounds like a contradiction doesn’t it – but it works.
Mrs. Coulton (Shaz) plays a mean rhythm guitar riffing away. Rock solid drumming and some fine vocals from Gram Swan.
It’s infectious stuff. I’ve found it a more revealing and enjoyable listen with each spin of the CD.
Here’s the opener – Anthem for the Dammed.
In addition to the brooding darkness it does (to me at least) nod more than a little towards early Hawkwind. Some of the stuff here would fit right in with In Search of Space. That’s meant as a compliment Andro…..
I hope there’s more to come from Malleus.
If you’re an old fashioned type like me and prefer a physical product – I ordered my CD through Malleus’ Bandcamp page here:
https://malleusnwobhm.bandcamp.com/
If downloading/streaming is your thing, then Amazon is your port of call here:
https://amzn.to/2VdAw4p
And the Malleus web site is here:
https://www.malleusnwobhm.com/
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