ANGEL WITCH – Screamin’ N’ Bleedin’ 1985 [N.W.O.B.H.M. Treasures Records remastered reissue] (2020) *HQ*

320_1 /// 320_2 /// HQ 1 /// HQ 2

A legend from the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal scene, ANGEL WITCH formed in London, England, 1978. They were originally named as Lucifer and there where countless line up changes, with a young dude called Bruce Dickinson briefly involved. ANGEL WITCH first LP from 1980 is a cult piece from the movement, but when things looked bright for the guys, the band split.
It took five years, at least another break-up, a couple of demos & singles, and a line-up change before their second album ”Screamin’ n’ Bleedin”’ arrived on 1985, released by Killerwatt Records.
Where do you go when your debut album was already a celebrated, cult LP? How do you follow that up? The answer is: you can’t. You can never top your best. You can come close but you’ll never reclaim what you had. This is the case with Angel Witch’s sophomore album ‘Screamin’ n’ Bleedin’.
However in saying that, still is an incredible classic metal album that shows the band in a new light. Gone are the rough edges and unpolished surfaces of before, replaced instead with precise traditional melodic metal riffs that is both progressive and commercially sound. Also, the addition of a trained metal singer with a slightly Paul DiAnno style, makes ”Screamin’ n’ Bleedin”’ a terrific heavy metal album like a mix of IRON MAIDEN, BLACK SABBATH’s ‘Heaven and Hell’ LP, and 1980 JUDAS PRIEST.

The production is much better that their primal debut album five years before, but still pretty raw for its time. The guitars are still heavy, but they’re mature and well weathered. The songs are as sleek as the melodies. The solos are more controlled and thoughtful. The riffs are immense without being pretentious. There is an underlying darkness that wasn’t in the first recording, subtly permeating while sublimely overwhelming in a direct yet underlying tone.
There is a little more palm muting to open chorded parts but this simply adds a new dimension to the music as a whole. The drums are once again in the same boat as the bass and effective for what they are.

Dave Tattum was an excellent choice for a singer. He’s similar in tone to guitarist Kevin Heybourne (who sang in the first album), but more professional. It’s hard to tell if he’s been trained or not but regardless he effectively sets the tone for each song. His vocals are mid to lower ranged for the most part. He has a tasteful grasp of his vibrato and doesn’t showboat. He does hit a few highs here and there but stays in the mid for the bulk of the album.
The lyrics are perhaps more serious but good all the same. Dave’s vocals float around various haunting passages, making some of darker songs even creepier (see ‘Goodbye’).

The album starts off with one of the best songs on the album, ‘Whose To Blame’, which begins with some strange noises and erupts into a headbanging midpaced riff. When the vocals come in it is easy to notice an improvement in this department, as Angel Witch got a new singer for this album who, in my opinion, is better than Kevin Heybourne. The chorus is quite catchy and there is an above average solo 3/4s through. A good track to start the album with. ‘Children of the Night’ slows down the pace a little with an equally good riff as the previous featuring. It pretty much follows the same structure as the previous track, and the same things can be said about it. The solo is merely average however, which drags the song down a bit.

‘Evil Games’ is up next, which is faster paced and contains some great melody lines. It also has some nice soloing after each chorus, which is significantly better on the second chorus. The only down side to the song it the kids singing ‘evil games’ at the end, but it is only a small fault.
Next up is a ballad, which has a great atmospheric solo to start things off with. It is made up of acoustic verses and heavy choruses with some more excellent soloing thrown in. The song as a whole is very effective and the vocalist sounds in top form. While ballads can often be the low point on albums, on here it is actually among the best of the songs.

The title track is next, and is one of the faster songs on the album. The vocalist is, once again, in top form, with him pretty much nailing the vocal lines perfectly. The under verse riffs are great, the chorus is extremely catchy and the solo in the middle is impeccable. Definitely the highlight of the album. ‘Reawakening’ has a great, ‘rocking’ intro riff where it turns into a slower, heavier riff. However, the intro riff is really the best part of this track, as the rest of it is pretty much average, the chorus in particular. The solos save it from being a bad song, but it would’ve been much better if the track as a whole was of more quality.

‘Waltz the Night’ is slow and plodding. When you first hear it you expect it to turn into something awesome, and that the riff is just an intro, but it continues throughout the song. Even the solos are mediocre, mostly consisting of random noises, and despite a spirited vocal performance, it is quite bad.
‘Goodbye’ is the second ballad I suppose, and is about some guy breaking up with his girlfriend. While not being as good as the first ballad, it is an increase in quality from the previous song, and is fairly enjoyable. An emotionally driven solo finishes off the track well.

‘Fatal Kiss’ is where the album picks up to its original pace again. It speeds up halfway through to lead into a solo. While the chorus is a bit unimaginative in terms of the lyrics, this doesn’t detract from it’s catchiness in any real way. If it weren’t for the faster parts, however, the song would be on par with the previous track. UXV is some sort of outro, mainly consisting of some random noises over two piano notes which are repeated throughout the song. It doesn’t really do anything for me and I usually end up stopping the album at ‘Fatal Kiss’, but because it is an outro it doesn’t lose the album any points.

Had the band continued down this road they perhaps would’ve been bigger in the long run. This album is easily more in the Traditional vein of things than being a pure NWOBHM release. Either way this is worth hunting down as its amazing.
ANGEL WITCH split & reformed various times since this 1985 ”Screamin’ n’ Bleedin”’, and are still very active, regularly playing live to this day.
Highly Recommended

1 – Whose To Blame
2 – Child Of The Night
3 – Evil Games
4 – Afraid Of The Dark
5 – Screamin’ N’ Bleedin’
6 – Reawakening
7 – Waitz The Night
8 – Goodbye
9 – Fatal Kiss
10 – U.X.V. (Instrumental)

David Tattum – lead vocals
Kevin Heybourne – guitars, backing vocals
Peter Gordelier – bass
Dave Hogg – drums

BUY
rockadrome.com/store/angel-witch-screamin-n-bleedin-cd-treasure-005.html