Dear NWOBHM comrades, please, gather around and have a seat… Let us remember, as one, the vision of one man… Mr. Kevin Heybourne! The band’s debut was released almost thirty two years ago! When the album was released they split up almost at once! It’s one of those stories where we get to listen and talk and fill in each other’s blanks… Misfortunes and ups and downs and Kevin decides to revive the band in 2009; he finds three musicians he can lean on, at least for now… One of them is Bill Steer (Carcass) and the new – fourth – album is a fact!

“Dead sea scrolls” opens… This is one of the four… Four songs “manufactured” in the past, around 1983-84. They were found, rebuilt and served back, cool and brand new. Loved the motif, reminded me of Uriah Heep a bit! Production is so alive and Kevin’s voice is characteristic, as always. Some peeps might find all that reverb a bit bizarre, yet for all those people listening to the album and instinctively searching for the “Angel Witch” vinyl, “that reverb” is a basic ingredient.
 
You are gonna love “Witching hour”. It’s almost mid-tempo, featuring all those speed changes, all that galloping and a fantastic chorus and it’s here to make us feel a lot better, catching up with the glorious past. Beautiful solo, thematic, touching.
 
Every song on the album is over five minutes long and many of them are longer than six and seven minutes! A bunch of themes, lots of melodies and rhythms. No, don’t be scared by that last factor, it’s not tiring. The next theme to follow is always more intriguing, more interesting, more into it… “Guillotine”, an emblematic 6/8 rhythm runner; I must confess that Diamond Head came to mind during that one. You know what? I just can’t afford not to “look behind” when listening to such music. Technology and stuff may have made that sound so huge and polished, yet inspiration and soul always “look behind”! A big welcome back to the English is in order. We’ve missed you!