ANGEL WITCH post-'Angel Witch'

[nightsblood]

So if you really, really wanna confuse yourself, make your first ANGEL WITCH purchase when you're 16 years old, it's 1991, and you buy a vinyl copy of the American version of 'Frontal Assault' that actually splices together half the songs from 'Screamin' 'n Bleedin'" with half the songs from the European pressing of 'Frontal Assault' and then have no one tell you that is how the track list is constructed until several years later.
In my defense, I WOULD have bought the s/t album instead, but I could NOT find it. Ever try finding a NWOBHM LP in the rural southern US in 1991? I drove 90 minutes to the nearest record store to try and order a copy of this and 'Lightning to the Nations', and the clerk told me that they couldn't order "Nazi Music" for people. So a few months later I drove over an hour to a record fair and found this, so there was no way in hell I wasn't gonna buy it!
This confusing little backstory explains two things regarding my opinion of the post-s/t material from ANGEL WITCH:
1- I always kinda liked it (it was the first stuff I heard besides a couple of compilation tracks)
2- I always have trouble discerning 'Frontal Assault' and 'SnB'.

Once you sit down and tease the two apart, SnB does have the better track list. But FA (the real FA, not the stitched-together US version) also has some cool tracks (e.g., She Don't Lie, Something Wrong, Straight From Hell).

The real issue is, of course, why are the albums so much different from, and worse than, the s/t? All the lineup changes, recording delays, etc are well documented, but it's still strange that Heybourne wandered so far afield from the glorious debut. Five years does strange things to a fellow I guess. And maybe nothing was ever gonna be able to compare to the s/t; that's one of the true type specimens of the entire NWOBHM sound (along with 'Lightning to the Nations', which I didn't get for several more years, having to work my way through some DH collections/reissues before finding the real deal).

Would SnB and FA have been better received if they weren't released under the AW name? Were they just weak albums and I only (kinda) like them b/c half of each of them were my first serious exposure to the band? Ah, the things you ponder.....

[MassOfKthulu]

am i the only one who prefers FA and Snb to the debut? i have always wondered about the manilla road-angelwitch-candlemass connection. you know, mark shelton introducing candlemass to black dragon, and kevin heybourne being sent the candlemass debut and leif edling telling him how he loves angelwitch,and bam you have songs like waltz the night,pure candlemass worship by none other than kevin heybourne. in any case i absolutely love these two records. they do sound a bit alike, probably written during the same time.the tunes are quite versatile though. take to the wing, goodbye,fatal kiss,i mean.these are great songs to my ears.different strokes etc. by the way the 'new' (lol) album is great too. even the newer songs have great guitar licks.

[bobo]

am i the only one who prefers FA and Snb to the debut? i have always wondered about the manilla road-angelwitch-candlemass connection. you know, mark shelton introducing candlemass to black dragon, and kevin heybourne being sent the candlemass debut and leif edling telling him how he loves angelwitch,and bam you have songs like waltz the night,pure candlemass worship by none other than kevin heybourne. in any case i absolutely love these two records. they do sound a bit alike, probably written during the same time.the tunes are quite versatile though. take to the wing, goodbye,fatal kiss,i mean.these are great songs to my ears.different strokes etc. by the way the 'new' (lol) album is great too. even the newer songs have great guitar licks.

No your not. I also like those awesome albums more than the debut, but I'm afraid we're in minority. Shame he didn't keep going on with David Tattum. He's an excellent singer and those albums give some new moments. They're full of haunting melodies and excellent riffs. Brilliant

[Priamos]

Now look what you've done ! I have to check them again.

[Khnud]

Never heard Frontal Assault! Shame on me, I'll go look for a copy immediately.

[Ernest Thesiger]

Screamin' & Frontal are albums I'd call three-quarters good. I wish the latter didn't sound so mushy.

[ION BRITTON]

Nothing can top the debut. Probably THE ultimate NWOBHM record along with the Iron Maiden debut. Some good tracks on the next albums, but they really pale in comparison with the colossal first offering of the band. As metal as it can get in the year 1980. I've been listening to it for more than two decades now and I still get shivers down my spine with Angel Witch, Free Man, Sorcerers, White Witch and basically the whole fucking album.

But now I'm free and I don't care
I couldn't give a damn what happens in there
Now I'm through, what a life
Because now I'm a freeman

[nightsblood]

Is that Manilla Road-Candlemass-AW connection true? If so that's really cool, and it would help explain some of the stylistic change between 1980-1985. If it's not true, shame on you for trolling me with fake news (some of the Yanks hereabouts will find that funnier than the rest of you perhaps).

I recall reviews/interviews where people, including Heybourne, said they thought SnB sounded awful but they really liked how FA turned out, then I read other comments/reviews from other people that said the opposite, and yet to me they sounds pretty damn similar! I do think SnB has the better songs overall, but I don't know how you'd listen to 1 album and say "this sounds great" and listen to the other and say "this sounds like crap".

Yeah, while I'm fond of a lot of the tunes on SnB-FA ('Waltz the Night' is a personal favorite), the debut is just on another level all its own. Amazing how consistently excellent that album is from song to song to song. I'm not nuts about all the early AW tracks; a few of them are a little blah. But they really spliced together an amazing track list fort his album. 'Iron Maiden' is indeed on par with it; 'Lightning to the Nations' is probably the only other NWOBHM LP I'd put up there beside them (now that i've said that, I'm sure I'll remember 1-2 other contenders 5 seconds after I hit the 'Submit' button).

[Priamos]

Is it me or indeed the opening riff of "Reawakening" reminds of the main riff of our local 80s metal hero's hit , Spitfire, "Lead me on"?

[Avenger]

am i the only one who prefers FA and Snb to the debut? i have always wondered about the manilla road-angelwitch-candlemass connection. you know, mark shelton introducing candlemass to black dragon, and kevin heybourne being sent the candlemass debut and leif edling telling him how he loves angelwitch,and bam you have songs like waltz the night,pure candlemass worship by none other than kevin heybourne. in any case i absolutely love these two records. they do sound a bit alike, probably written during the same time.the tunes are quite versatile though. take to the wing, goodbye,fatal kiss,i mean.these are great songs to my ears.different strokes etc. by the way the 'new' (lol) album is great too. even the newer songs have great guitar licks.

No you're not.

While the debut isn't bad I've always found it to have "happy" undertones and commercial flare with the excessive group sung chorus'.

Frontal Assault is the darkest of the three and more my cup of tea.

[wicked keeper]

[Avenger]