1979 DEMO REVIEW

"White Witch" is a bit slower than the final album version, and is a bit more stripped down. The first notable difference is the lead guitar section following the second verse, which starts off with the bass riff followed by a heavy and intense lead break before going into the soft strummed slow bridge section "standing in the shadows..." bit. Another difference is in the intro riff (the same for both the song intro and the second lead guitar intro), where it is not the first three notes of a minor scale but just root note going down a third. The second lead guitar solo begins the way most of us are familiar with, but at this time was incomplete and so goes back to the sparse chords. The ending also is very abrupt. Overall, this track is just a mere skeleton that has since developed into one of the greatest dark metal songs ever written.

"Extermination Day" is as heard on the BBC Friday Rock Show compilation albums. Or so I am led to believe by the one who dubbed this tape for me, although it actually doesn't sound much like a demo at all. Its completedness makes it sound like it was written before "White Witch" but the riffing and frantic style seems to be a more advanced Angel Witch song. At any rate, this is a horror classic with very frantic mob-like riffing and very anguished lead guitars and vocals. This is one of the fastest of the early Angel Witch songs and one of the most violently intense. 


RATING: 7.5