Let´s go back to the eighties for a moment, when heavy metal meant unity, the bands were absolutely true and, anyway, there was a special mood in all the metal scene. Now we´ve remembered that scenario, we can start telling the story of the Witch.
It was 1981, and while the NWOBHM was kicking the world´s ass, in Germany things were a bit different. Many bands with a special "teutonic" sound were coming out, most of them soon to disappear in the early eighties. Bands like Gravestone, Noisehunter, Veto, High Tension, Tyrant...and of course Stormwitch. Formed in 1979, under the first former name "Lemon Sylvan", the band went through some line-up changes, the last being bassist Wanschi replaced by a 16 year old teenager called Thomas Gleisberg. At first, Peter Langer was pretty hesitant to accept Thomas (later known as Ronny Pearson) because of his early age, but his crazy ways on stage and demonstrating he was a real showman managed to get him a place in the band. In 1983, after recording a four-song demo (Cave of Steenfoll, Priest of Evil, Walpurgis Night and Flour in the Wind), the band managed to get their first record deal of 5 albums, for the Gama records label, recording their first LP, "Walpurgis Night", at the famous Spygel studios, home of most of the bands mentioned above. Stormwitch (Andy Aldrian - vocals, Lee Tarot and Steve Merchant - guitars, Ronny Pearson - bass and Pete Lancer - drums) presented themselves with the typical leather and spikes image, recording the album in only eight days and releasing it in 1984.
They soon became known as "the masters of black romantic", thanks to that unique combination of dark melodies and mystery lyrics created mainly by Lee Tarot, a die hard fan of the old terror literature from Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde or Thomas Hardy. A great beginning album with true classics like Priest of Evil, Flour in the Wind or Walpurgis Night.
A year later, the second album came out, "Tales of Terror", that meant one more step ahead in Stormwitch sound. Improved melodies, absolutely great lyrics and the classic Witch sound made this album a must for any metal fan. Sadly, Tales of Terror was never released on CD, and it´s very rare on vinyl, so only a few people will be able to enjoy tracks like "When the Bat Bites", "Night Stalker" or "Lost Legions". 1986 and 1987 can be described as the best years in Stormwitch history, due to the following two albums to come out. First, in 1986 Gama records edited what for most of the Witch fans is their best album ever: "Stronger than Heaven". Stormwitch became more original with their image, because due to the thousands of bands that did wear that leather image, they started wearing old costumes from the baroque era of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Besides this change in their image, the album sure helped a lot! The album featured songs like the speedish "Rats in the Attic", "Slave to Moonlight", the instru-metal "Dorian Gray" and much more, like the now famous "Ravenlord", recently resurrected by the Swedish metalheads Hammerfall. They recorded that cover for adding it to their "Glory to the Brave" single, back in 1996, and thanks to them, Stormwitch is fortunately being known by the new generations. Hammerfall even had the chance to play live with at least one part of Stormwitch. In 1997, Andy Aldrian joined Hammerfall on stage to play a version of Ravenlord, at the "Heavy, oder was?!" festival in Tübingen. Sure it would have been nice to see it! Well, back to our Stormwitch history, a lot of things happened that 1986 year. Stormwitch did their first tour of Germany, touring with Stranger and Killer, and this was to be Stormwitch´s only tour for Germany. Strangely, in Eastern Europe the band was way more known and had lots more fans, so Stormwitch spent more time touring and promoting there. Even a fan club was created, under the name of "Witch Attack" (that was going to be the name of this web site), that stayed with them until the very end, but somehow the magazines and general media kept on ignoring the band, giving much more support to Helloween, Running Wild or Rage.
1987 was the most succesful year in Stormwitch´s history. A new album was out, "The Beauty and the Beast", an album that is my favourite, although more melodic and somehow softer than their previous LPs, elements that in fact fit perfectly with the band´s sound. So, tracks like "Call of the Wicked", "Emerald Eye", "Russia´s on Fire", "Cheyenne" or "Tears by the Firelight" (a great ballad with female choruses, recently resurrected by the Italian band "White Skull" in one of their last albums) allowed Stormwitch to play bigger and magnificient shows in arenas, and even to record a live album called "Live in Budapest", that had very little distribution in Germany and which featured songs from every Stormwitch album, though more centered in "The Beauty and the Beast". Two years after releasing the Beauty-Beast album, in 1989, Witch fans were a bit dissapointed by that year´s work, "Eye of the Storm". Although it was a great LP, very depurated, it was softer than any previous album. More ballads, sweet tunes, and bassist Ronny Pearson had left the band, being replaced by Andy Hunter. The album featured tracks like "Eye of the Storm" (at full speed), "King in the Ring", "Steel in the Red Light" and much more, like the ballads "I want you around" and "Take me Home". Soon after releasing "Eye of the Storm", main songwriter Lee Tarot left the band, and so did the other axeman Steve Merchant. Their 5 LP record deal had ended, and it was time to leave Gama and start a new era in Stormwitch´s history.
Three years later, a new Witch LP came out. The only original members were Andy Aldrian and Peter Langer, and new musicians completed the line-up. They were Joe Gassman (ex-Letter X) and Damir Uzunovic (ex- Mon Amour) on guitars, and Martin Albrecht on bass. So, "War of the Wizards" saw the light, and all the fans could discover that Stormwitch was still alive and well, releasing a great concept album based on the "Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien, with cool tracks like "Listen to the Stories", "Wanderer" or "A Promise of Old". A few years later, Joe Gassman left the band, and 1994´s "Shogun" came out, being Stormwitch then a four piece. It was a nice goodbye, one of the best Stormwitch albums, long, original, and based on the James Clavell book of the same name. "Shogun" featured tracks like "Stranded", "King of Winds", "Let Lessons Begin" and the Spanish "Seven Faces and Two Hearts", creating and album that, although being a bit distant from the original Stormwitch LPs, was one of the best (and one of the less known too) heavy metal albums to come out in 1994. Although Damir Uzunovic left the band just after the Shogun tour, two new members joined the Stormwitch line-up, Siggi Maier (ex-Murdock) on the guitar and Jürgen Ustrnul (ex-Moonshadow) on the bass guitar, surprisingly leaving now Martin Albrecht the role of a guitar player. The idea was to continue together as a band and record and release one more album. Even some demos and song ideas were recorded for their upcoming album (under the provisional title of 'Death Poems'), but finally the band decided to call it a day and that was the end of Stormwitch as a band.
In 1998, a compilation album called "Priest of Evil", let the newer fans (like me) enjoy many of their classic songs from their first three albums, impossible to get first hand nowadays. A nice selection but everybody will miss songs from "The Beauty and the Beast" and "Eye of the Storm", and also from "War of the Wizards" and "Shogun". Since this compilation was made with the participation of Lee Tarot, sure he didn´t want to include anything from the last Stormwitch albums. So far, most of the Stormwitch members have been dedicated to other projects, you can read more here. Even, a "semi-Stormwitch revival" was planned, in 1998. Andy Aldrian, Matthias Mailänder and two Tyrant ex-members gathered to play the classics featured in Priest of Evil, and some old Gravestone tunes, in a project that was to be called "The Return of the Wizard". Sadly, all the musicians were also involved in yet another projects, so finally The Return of the Wizard never saw the light. That was all, until the year 2002, 8 years after Stormwitch's last studio album, the rumor about the band was going to re-unite finally came true. It wasn't really a reunion, since the only former member involved was singer Andy Mück. From the 4 or 5 track CD that was announced, the final product was a full album under the name "Dance with the Witches", released in August of that very year. Some gigs at festivals followed (including Wacken Open Air and Summer Breeze), and now that the Witch is alive again, who knows what the future might bring?
Source: [Thöja Enwizz](Thöja Enwizz)
