Witch Cross – Angel of Death

30/06/2021

‘Angel of Death’ is not a collection of Slayer covers. It is in fact the third album of the Danish band Witch Cross after their comeback record in 2013. First a bit of a history lesson: way back in 1984 there were a few other Danes highly involved with metal. Most notorious of those is, of course, King Diamond with Merciful Fate, apart from Metallica’s Lars Ulrich perhaps, but that is a whole other story. Witch Cross fits into that place in time and space. Their debut record ‘Fit for Fight’ was even recorded at the same studio as Merciful Fate’s first two records.

Even though they never reached the same legendary status as the King, their debut remains an underrated metal classic from the eighties. No self respecting hair metal party worth its salt should go without the wonderfully camp ‘Night Flight from Tokyo’. Night Flight Orchestra anyone? Their debut even saw a lavish reissue in 2012 by Hell’s Headbangers that led the way for their eventual return to the studio with their comeback album ‘Axe to Grind’.

From the original eighties lineup of the debut actually only two members remain: axeman Mike Koch and Jan’ Little John’ Normark, the bass player. Vocalist Alex Savage, although still active in music and a rather well known media figure in Denmark, did not join in on the reunion. His high pitched wailing was replaced by an Englishman called Kevin Moore who was incidentally also behind the mic in the Oliver/ Dawson version of Saxon around the turn of the century.

Stylistically, you see then also a shift away from the Dokken type of songs from the debut to a more classic heavy metal approach that is indeed not entirely unsurprisingly reminiscent of Saxon. Moore‘s voice veers somewhere in between Biff Byford and a Rhandy Roads era Ozzy or even that most underappreciated one time Black Sabbath vocalist Tony Martin. Now eight years later, comes the follow up to that record, called ‘Angel of Death’. I was a bit disappointed by the chosen artwork. Yes, the original cover of the ‘Fit for Fight’ was an incredibly cheesy Sword and Sorcery painting, but in all its naivety it had its vintage charm. The cover for the new album looks more professional perhaps, but also quite bland, like it was a leftover from a PS2 game that nobody wanted. Come on guys, with a title like that you can do better.

Musically, it continues on the path they were walking on since the comeback‘ Axe to Grind’ album. ‘Phoenix Fire’, for which you can see the video here above, is a particular standout track of classic heavy metal.