Witchfynde - Give 'Em Hell (1980)^{Release ID: 5233}

I have a deep connection to this record, going back to the early Eighties when it was gifted to me out of the blue. I had never heard Witchfynde before, but was enthralled by it from the very first playthrough and it still gets regular spins to this very day. At least as many as the very best albums from those NWOBHM years, such as Killers, Lightning to the Nations and Bomber, records alongside which this stands proudly in my collection.

Witchfynde actually show a couple of sides to themselves on Give 'Em Hell, one a fairly straight-up hard rocking version of late-70's / early -80's heavy metal as exemplified by the title cut. The other side to the band is a progressive version of heavy metal that is more adventurous and places as much emphasis on atmospherics as much as on ripping out killer riffs, with the almost nine-minutes of "Unto the Ages of the Ages" being the albums marginal highlight for me. This side of the band is the one that I find most interesting and it is the three tracks written in this vein, "The Divine Victim", "Leaving Nadir" and the previously mentioned "Unto the Ages of the Ages" that made the band stand out for me all those many years ago and which keep dragging me back. I guess with all the water under the bridge that has seen so much experimentation and progressiveness seep into modern metal, someone listening to Give 'Em Hell today for the first time would undoubtedly be little impressed, but this was an album that stood out to me at the time for it's adventurousness.

The tracks that exhibit the more conventional and rockier side of the band here are somewhat variable in quality with "Ready to Roll" and the title track being much superior to the somewhat lacklustre "Gettin' Heavy" and "Pay Now - Love Later", a track whose fate is sealed even more so by following the epic "Unto the Ages of the Ages". which should have closed out the album in my book and which makes the actual closer sound a bit puerile in comparison. That said the two earlier-mentioned tracks are very good examples of early NWOBHM headbangers with nice catchy riffs and fairly simplistic lyrics, great for a good old drunken singalong, something I was always up for back in the day!

The production on Give 'Em Hell is actually slightly muddy which gives it a sort of doom metal feeling that serves it quite well I feel, particularly on the slower sections, the opening riff of "The Divine Victim", for example, coming off like a riff from an early Trouble or Saint Vitus album and the track as a whole being every bit as doom metal as anything on Witchfinder General's lauded debut. Guitarist Trevor Taylor (aka Montalo) dishes out a string of nice solos that display a reasonable amount of variation but aren't showy or over-extravagant. The bass sits fairly prominently in the mix and underpins the guitar work nicely. Band founder Graham Scoresby's drumming is very good, check out Leaving Nadir for some really nice fills along with his timekeeping. Unfortunately whilst doing my due diligence for this review I found out that Graham was killed in a road accident back in February of this year - RIP.

This is undeniably not a typical NWOBHM album, with the band already having been together for seven years by the time of its release, it doesn't possess the youthful vitality and dynamism of, say, the Maiden or Angel Witch debuts from the same year, but it does have a maturity to the songwriting that sees them producing a more expansive and atmospheric record.

That cover is of course going to attract certain expectations from a modern listener, but at the time such openly satanic imagery was pretty much unheard of, this was the time of Thatcher and Reagan's neo-puritanism and here in the UK Mary Whitehouse and her gang of self-serving evangelists was down on anything which may potentially corrupt the nation's Youth, so the cover was in itself a two-fingered gesture to the "powers that be". Ironically, my second-hand vinyl copy, bought for me by my first wife around '82, has a map hand-drawn, presumably, by the album's previous owner, of an ambush plan by Stoke City fans for some poor unsuspecting sods visiting Stoke for a football match at a time when football violence was endemic here in England. That to me is far more disturbing than any picture of a goat's head and pentagram could ever be.

All-in-all I would have to claim Give 'Em Hell to be one of the most important albums ever in my journey of metal discovery. It is still one of my all-time favourites and I am having a genuine blast listening to it over and over whilst I write out this diatribe. One of the most underappreciated albums from those early NWOBHM years with a darkness of atmosphere and an ambition beyond any of their contemporaries.

1980’s “Give ‘Em Hell” was the first & most celebrated album from this seminal four-piece English heavy metal band from Mansfield but they actually formed way back in 1973 so it’s not surprising that Witchfynde had a pretty well-defined sound by this point, even though they offered plenty of variety in style from track to track. The album cover features some of the earliest Satanic imagery in metal music with the inclusion of the now obligatory goats head & pentagram while the lyrics also hint at the band’s fascinations with the more sinister side of life, although it has to be said that (unlike NWOBHM contemporaries like Angel Witch & Venom) Witchfynde’s sound isn’t always a good fit for the thematic concepts the band are depicting. 

Witchfynde are often sighted as an early influence on black metal although I think that’s stretching things a bit from a musical point of view. In fact, their sound doesn’t fit too comfortably under the NWOBHM banner either to be honest. Most of their musical influences are drawn from the 1970’s & they generally opt for a more restrained & controlled mid-paced delivery. They also possessed a darker atmosphere than the material really justified which has a fair bit to do with a thick, warm & moody production job that includes a fair amount of space.  I find it to be a little muffled to be honest, but it doesn’t see the instrumentation losing definition. This may be an unusual sound but it really stands out from the rest of the NWOBHM movement & is more memorable as a result.  

Witchfynde’s sound is best described as a blend of 70’s hard rock, heavy metal & progressive rock with touches of psychedelics here & there. Kinda like 70’s Black Sabbath meets the progressive hard rock of Rush. They’re at their best when they’re heading in more expansive & progressive directions with shifting time signatures & epic arrangements in my opinion. At times I can clearly hear the influence on bands like Mercyful Fate, Celtic Frost & Samael in the atmosphere & controlled aggression & if that’s not a feather in Witchfynde’s cap I don’t know what is. “Give ‘Em Hell” is definitely worth a listen for fans of the darker end of the NWOBHM.