Angel Witch : Angel Witch (30th Anniversary Edition)
NOBODY ELSE CAN SEE YOU
THE SAME WAY AS MYSELF
FLY HIGH AND TOUCH THE SKY.
YOU'RE THE ANGEL
I ADORE
Angel Witch
is the
first album
by British
Heavy Metal band
ANGEL WITCH
The album was
released in 1980
through
Bronze Records,
and since then
re-released
in four editions
over the years.
The cover features
a painting
formerly attributed to
John Martin
titled
The Fallen Angels Entering Pandemonium.
The album made
Angel Witch
one of the key bands
in the
new wave of
British heavy metal
(NWOBHM)
scene,
and has proven
influential
on subsequent movements,
particularly on
then-upcoming
thrash,
speed,
doom
and
extreme
metal artists.
Reception and Legacy
Angel Witch
received generally
very positive reviews.
The only exception
was the
very first review
of the album by
journalist
Paul Suter
for the
influential British
music paper
Sounds
in 1980.
Suter defined
the album
"appalling"
and
"weedy",
marred by a
"destructively dreadful"
production and by
weak vocals.
Another
Sounds
reviewer
Malcolm Dome,
on the contrary,
loved the album
for its
aggressiveness
mixed with
melody and
declared it the
"album of the year"
together with
Girlschool's
Demolition.
Canadian
reviewer
Martin Popoff
says that this is
"the only Angel Witch album
of deep importance",
being "the first
panoramic
black metal statement
of the modern era";
its
"mix of gothic melody,
sinister surprise
and scorching
dense riffery"
establishes
"the band as
genuinely scary"
and
"isolated and elevated
from the
fun-loving
metal community"
of the time.
Mike Stagno
of the
Sputnikmusic
editorial staff
reminds how
Angel Witch
"is regarded by many as
a NWOBHM classic
alongside
the likes of
Iron Maiden,
On Through the Night,
and
Wheels of Steel"
and, despite
some flaws
in the general sound,
it is
"a gem";
he adds that the band
Angel Witch
"never really achieved
what they deserved."
The AllMusic review
underlines this
last concept
and defines
the album a
"metal classic".
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