New Wave of British Heavy Metal
bands came in many guises:
Sabbath
-derived traditionalists, flash-rocking
Priest
disciples, and even
punk
-inflected garage rockers. But as would become apparent with
Iron Maiden
's later releases, many acts also looked to '70s
progressive rock
dinosaurs like
Genesis
and
Yes
for inspiration. Only, when combined with the
N.W.O.B.H.M.
's seemingly counter-intuitive "do it yourself" ethic, these
excesses made for a very strange and positively explosive mix of extremes. Mansfield's
Witchfynde
fell squarely into this category, for though their lyrics often echoed the faux-satanic imagery espoused by contemporaries like
Venom
Angel Witch
, the band's complex compositions quickly revealed their
fetishes, among which late-70's
Rush
was by far the most obvious. So whilst made-to-order singles like the title track;
"Ready to Roll"
; and the silly, clearly forced
"Pay Now -- Love Later"
catered to the simplistic
hard rock
trends of the day, the best offerings on the band's 1980 debut,
Give 'Em Hell
were those which thrived on shifting time signatures and epic arrangements. These included expansive cuts like
"Unto the Ages of the Ages,"
and possibly their best-known track,
"Leaving Nadir"
-- an unabashed tribute (some would say "retread") of
Geddy Lee
and Co.'s
"Xanadu."
All of which makes
one of the more original and surprisingly lasting documents from this exciting era for
heavy metal
. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia