Witchfynde were arguable the brighest star in the black night that cloaked the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. The band provided a parochial demonic edginess that proved so refreshing in 1980… and seems to have gained even greater resonance when viewed from this distant future plot.

As Sounds’ deputy editor at the time, Geoff Barton, almost admits in the sleevenotes, neither money nor sex would trempt him to Mansfield or Manchester to catch the band live. Instead, it was yours truly who trundled to the unlikely metal outpost of Denton Youth Club where the band’s brand of clipped black glam immediately impressed. Herein was unexpected wit and venom.

The joke was that Witchfynde’s disparate influences would stretch as far as Abba. They didn’t, of course, but they held a vision that lay way beyond the norm for such a band.

‘Give ’Em Hell’ was scratchy, spirited, vibrant, thrilling and packed with the kind of rock’n’roll that kicks teh heart into speed gear and heavy thrills. It is Sabbath meeting The New York Dolls down the Miners’ Club. Gloriously flawed, daft in places, full of eccentric crazed riffing.

And album back from the dead and fully deserving four fat stars… and that's half a star more than Barton ever gave them.

*****