WITCH CROSS — Fit for Fight (review)

WITCH CROSS — Fit for Fight album cover Album · 1984 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Fit for Fight" is the debut full-length studio album by Danish heavy metal act Witch Cross. The album was released through Roadrunner Records in 1984. "Fit for Fight" is the band´s only album release from those days (they´ve since reunited and have released more material). Not many Danish metal acts from the early eighties made it big or even got just a slight bit of recognition internationally, maybe with the exception of Mercyful Fate, Artillery, and Pretty Maids, and Witch Cross is another one of those forgotten Danish gems that very few people have heard about.

The band play a an energetic traditional heavy metal style, that can be relatively mainstream oriented like on "Night Flight to Tokyo", but also darker and heavier like on "Face of a Clown" (which features a couple of nods toward Mercyful Fate). The band are very well playing. The rhythm section is tight and organic, the guitar riffs are hard, edgy and heavy, the guitar solos blistering, and to top it off the strong vocal attack of Alex "Savage" Nyborg Madsen (who would later become a rather famous Danish radio hosts and also lead vocalist in the Danish Led Zeppelin Jam). He is a real vocal capacity and a great asset to the band´s sound.

So most of the features that need to be in place to succeed are present and accounted for on "Fit for Fight". When that is said, it´s probably in the songwriting department, where they didn´t stand out enough. The songwriting is competent enough, but it´s not terribly original for the time, and that´s probably the main reason for them not reaching a wider audience. I´m sure though with the right management and a couple of more mature releases, they could have made it big. As it is "Fit for Fight" is a pretty great heavy metal album and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.
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