LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

white witch, who were originally signed to Capricorn Records, may well have been the originators, despite their sonic unpredictability, alongside Brownsville Station and Sorcery, of hair metal or sleaze metal in the US as we know it. This 1972-released debut album predates Aerosmith, Starz, Angel and Kiss by some 18 months, and is every bit as gloriously fey as Motley Crue's first recordings some eight years later- yet is of a far proggier bent- for despite all its campery (particularly in the overtly Sweet-esque image depicted on the photo shots) this is still a product of the hippie era, and the primary influences, as with Brit glamsters Silverhead, are Uriah Heep and Deep Purple- hence the Gillanesque banshee shrieks of vocalist Ronn Goedert and the Lord/Hensley-like Hammond pounding of Buddy Pendergrass- although on 'Don't Close Your Mind' they bear a passing resemblance to early BOC, and the charming 'It's So Nice To Be Stoned' is a slice of vaudevillian ragtime that wouldn't be out of place on a Love, Grateful Dead or Charlatans (US) album. Definitely worth seeking out if you are into any of the bands mentioned above, if you bought any of RPM's "Junk Shop Glam" series- or if you enjoy the idea of a band with a slightly Christian lyrical take on 'white' magic as opposed to Coven and Black Widow's truck with the left hand path. Remastered with booklet.