Here’s another “rediscovered” band from back in the good old New Wave of British Heavy Metal days – Woden Forge.
They were from the Ipswich area forming towards the end of the 1970s. Despite building up a healthy local following, being able to pull in sell-out crowds to respectable venues such as the Ipswich Corn Exchange and bagging supports to the likes of Hawkwind and Vardis it didn’t work out for Woden Forge.
They split in the mid-1980s with a few unreleased recordings to show for their efforts. Those recording from the early 1980s have now been released via Dark Age Records.
A very limited run of only 200 CDs has long gone. I was fortunate enough to fall on one from Sonic Age Records in Greece when ordering something else. However – the digital version is available from the band’s BandCamp page.
Sixteen excellent songs demonstrating that Woden Forge had the chops if not the breaks. A fair bit of variety to their song writing too.
Return of the Forge a nice pulsing instrumental to begin with. Running Scared and Exterminator proper NWOBHM-style songs. Short, punchy, energetic, fast riffing and soloing as they point along.
Have a listen to Running Scared:
Boadicea steps it up considerably. Atmospheric, spacey beginning before it bursts out in to a huge free-flowing cutting, slashing riff. Slows down in the middle to add to the drama given the subject matter of the song (Boudicea of course being the Warrior Queen here in England who took on the Romans on full force) then off it goes again building up to some excellent guitar work through the extended play-out. Magical stuff. Reminds me a bit of say Wishbone Ash’s Warrior.
Another Monday Morning is a sort of gentle piano-based ballad to mix the styles up a bit more, before the remainder become enjoyable short and punchy rockers with plenty of catchy melodic elements throughout amongst the spiky riffs.
Hall of the King, for example, is one and Office Girl must have been nailed on for a single had it worked out that way such is the infectious hook.
There’s a nice bluesy based section on Stranger in the City and Conceit thunders along nice and heavy.
All in all – lots of talent here and quite some finesse to proceedings making Woden Forge that bit different to many of their contempories. Certainly more to them than a “lost” NWOBHM-era band who didn’t break out.
As mentioned, the very limited CD run is gone. Though the digital version is available from the Woden Forge BandCamp page. Here’s the link:
https://wodenforge.bandcamp.com