Witch Cross
Fit For Fight Hells Headbanger Records
Having grown up in the Eighties, I must hang my head in shame I had forgotten all about the mighty Witch Cross and what a huge mistake that was! At the time we were all concentrating on King Diamond, Mercyful Fate and Witch Cross kind of slipped away from everyone’s attention.
Now I may be wrong, but I remember having a plastic record given away free by either Metal Forces or Kerrang (when they were Metal, in fact it was my bible back in the day!), and it had a track from these Danish metallers on it.
So all these years later we have the re-released album from Witch Cross and you know that it’s a mega step back in time and has aged well. It's raw, rocking and filled full of Heavy Metal passion the way it used to be. Heavily influenced by NWOBHM, this is a piece of Metal history that needs to be discovered. 'Night Flight To Tokyo' opens up and is energetic, guitar wielding and full of the sounds of yester year.
Think early Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Tygers of Pan Tang and maybe a bit of Mercyful Fate thrown into the mix and you come up with an album that should have been so much more.
The band suffered many line-up changes and called it quits in 1986, which is such a shame this band had potential. 'Face Of A Clown' and the brilliant 'Rocking The Night Away' prove my point with dueling guitars and clean vocals, this really rocks, believe me.
In fact 'Rocking The Night Away' has anthem written all over it and polished up this could become a modern day anthem for some aspiring bands today. I can’t really fault any of the songs on here, 'Killer Dogs' has a blistering riffs to please the metal gods. '“Fight The Fire' for some reason reminded me of Def Leppard's 'High And Dry' and wouldn’t have been out of place on there.
'Axe Dance' is an instrumental and is cracking, this is a dance of Metal mastery, totally awesome! 'Light Of A Torch' is top notch, as is the whole album. Fantastic musicianship, catchy melodies, hell you just can’t go wrong. The best is saved till last 'Alien Savage' is brutal in an Eighties fashion.
This is epic, rocking, head-banging, sword wielding abandonment!! You NEED to listen to this track!!!!
This is proper Metal none of this sub-genre stuff that seems to be separating and dividing the masses in the Hard Rock / Heavy Metal world these days.
Yes it sounds dated and may not appeal to everyone, but for me the album is nostalgic and a look back to the way Heavy Metal used to be. And the good news is the band has reformed and are looking to tour and record some new material!!!
Review by: Seb Di Gatto
Tracklisting:
1. Night Flight To Tokyo
2. Face Of A Clown
3. Rocking The Night Away
4. Killer Dogs
5. Fight The Fire
6. Axe Dance
7. Light Of A Torch
8. Alien Savage
