Sweet NWOBHM Danger

When I was buying a couple of New Wave Of British Heavy Metal records from a UK seller, I figured that I might as well add to the order to try and make it worth the overseas shipping fees.

I already own the one crucial Angel Witch album, the self titled from 1980, but the band has a few early singles that I've always wanted to collect as well.

The first Angel Witch single was for Sweet Danger, and was on EMI before the band got picked up by Bronze. The 12 inch has two songs that didn't appear on the album and are exclusive to the single... Hades Paradise and Flight Nineteen were originally on the band's earlier demos, so it is nice that they got an official release on the b-side here because the songs are so good.

With the paper sleeve it is going to be difficult to find one in great shape 45+ years down the line, and this one definitely has some wear and tear, this copy looks better in person than the pictures. While this single isn't something that I've ever set out to chase, I'm very happy to have this in the collection now.

Bronze Angel Witch

As we started to close in on the end of 2018, I was a bit bothered that I hadn't made more moves on the ten records from my 2018 Want List. Sure, I'd crossed off four of them, but damn it, that wasn't good enough. I wanted more.

I started off the year with a big obsession over the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal bands, and I had big plans to chase a bunch of those records for 2018. I did alright, but you know how it is, and soon I was off fighting other battles. I was recently checking my 2018 Want List, and seeing the Angel Witch album on there, I knew that I had to cross off one more NWOBHM record before the end of the year.

As far as NWOBHM debut albums go, Angel Witch is right up there with Iron Maiden, Diamond Head, and Raven...it's a stone cold classic.

Angel Witch 'As Above, So Below'

I was pretty skeptical when I first heard that Rise Above was going to be releasing a brand new Angel Witch album last year. While the debut Angel Witch album is pure NWOBHM brilliance, and an absolute classic, I had doubts that the lone original member would be able to capture that same magic 30 years later. My expectations were set pretty low, but with Rise Above mentioning the new LP, As Above, So Below, contained some unreleased songs from the bands early days, I figured that it might be worth checking out.

Because I was skeptical, I made sure that I downloaded the album before I ordered a copy from Rise Above. Like many of the new Metal releases that I listened to at the beginning of 2012, I really wasn't feeling it. The songs stuck around on my ipod, but rarely got any playing time as I would listen to the album about once a month. I may have even come close to just deleting it a few times, but I just couldn't give up on it that easily.

By the time December came around, and I was listening to all the new music I'd picked up over the past year in preparation of my annual recap, it suddenly clicked with me. Hey, this is actually a pretty solid Metal album. No, this doesn't exactly make you feel like it is 1980 again, but man, some of those riffs are sure to get you thinking about dusting off your denim jacket and banging your head. As Above, So Below is welcome return for Angel Witch.

1,000 pressed on red vinyl.