Witch Cross at CHAOS DESCENDS!
A lot of travelling, and a nightmare to get to my hotel in Berlin after flying in from Madrid on the Friday evening…but hooked up with guitarist Mike Koch the next morning, and we drove down to meet up with the rest of the band in Crispendorf, in the heart of the Thuringen countryside. The setting for the inaugural CHAOS DESCENDS festival was an old East German holiday camp, weird, spooky, and complete with a miniature train, it was absolutely perfect!
Well attended and with an eclectic line-up that ranged from doom, death and black metal through Sabbath/Prog inspired U.S. metallers Danava, and the innovative and hypnotic Swans, there was even room for good old-fashioned early 80’s Danish Metal!
The crowd were amazing to us, singing along to the songs from ‘Fit for Fight’, and we are starting to notice that they are becoming familiar with the newer stuff from ‘Axe to Grind’ too, which is particularly satisfying.
I’ll be doing a follow-up piece on the festival with more pics soon.
Our next shows see us in Denmark and Sweden in September, and we now start to coalesce ideas for the third album.
Kev Moore
Busy week ahead
Got a show coming up with my local band, THE COPS, playing with an old Castillo as a backdrop, down the coast from where I live, in San Juan de los Terreros, on Thursday night. Let’s hope we can deliver some “Spanish Castle Magic”!
Then, on Friday, it’s time to drive to Madrid to catch a plane to Berlin and meet up with my Metal collegaues in WITCH CROSS! Really excited to be playing the CHAOS DESCENDS Festival this year! No rest when I return though, as I’ll be back with THE COPS again playing in the city of Lorca in Spain on Tuesday – the day after I fly back to Madrid.
Kev Moore
Witch Cross return to rock Germany!
Totally stoked about our upcoming appearance at the CHAOS DESCENDS Festival, which takes place at Ferienland CRISPENDORF between 16-18 July.
We’ll be hitting the stage at 19.50 on Saturday 18th, just before SWANS, who I’m looking forward to checking out.
WITCH CROSS will be making a few more live appearances this year, so keep an eye out on these pages for more news!
Kev Moore
Witch Cross in print!
Great to see WITCH CROSS’ appearance at the BROFEST UK Festival get a mention and a photo in the current edition of the respected Metal Mag IRON FIST!
Order your copy now!
Kev Moore
The Very ‘Eavy Festival 2014
I’ve been so busy since I got back from Holland, that I’ve only now got around to writing about our appearance there. Witch Cross have always had a loyal fan base in The Netherlands, and once again, they didn’t disappoint. I flew in from Alicante to Amsterdam Schiphol and waited there for Mike. We then made our way North to the town of Stadtkanaal, where our promoter and friend Hugo Koch was staging the Very ‘Eavy Festival.
Pre-gig Breakfast with The Boys
There was a fantastic array of Metal on display over the two days, including UK newcomers TOLEDO STEEL, who delivered a confident, vibrant set, and my mates PICTURE, legendary Dutch band who I’d caught at Leyendas del Rock here in Alicante last summer. this was their last show before embarking on a South American tour.
Closing the show were NWOBHM legends TYGERS OF PAN TANG. I spent some time chatting to guitarist Rob Weir who confided in me that this is perhaps the best line-up of the band he’s ever had, and I have to say, they really delivered. they’re doing a number of festivals throughout Europe this summer – catch them if you can.
Our Merch stand
For our part, I never fail to be moved by the reception the fans give us. they know every word of every song, even the ones from the new album, and that is very heartening for us as we move forward as a band. Of course, the classic cuts from the ‘Fit for Fight’ album always go down a storm.
Thank you and Goodnight!
This year marks the 30th. anniversary of its release, and we’ll be looking at commemorating that in some form.
Take a look at these Videos filmed on the night, and get a flavour of Very ‘Eavy! Thanks to Hugo, the team and our fellow bands for making it so memorable!
A Tale of Two Festivals – Part One: Sun Valley Metalfest, Gallio, Italy
Apologies for the delay in my travelogue…I meant to write about this ages ago, but…..I’ve been, uh, travelling! A few weeks back WITCH CROSS converged on the picturesque area of Altopiano in Northern Italy to headline the Friday night at the Sun Valley Metalfest. We came from all directions, two from Denmark, one from Sweden, and one from London. As for me, I flew from Spain on the Thursday morning and consequently enjoyed a wonderful day exploring the beautiful old town of Bergamo.
The Old City looms over the New…
The Funicular: Although the track was steep, the fare wasn’t…
The Citta Vecchia sits perched atop a hill overlooking the newer part of town, and can be accessed by a vertiginous funicular railway, which is fun. Once you emerge into the old stone streets and passageways, you are transported into another world, albeit peppered with fabulous cafes and pizza restaurants. Needless to say, I indulged in these culinary delights..well, “when in Rome..” or in this case, “when in Bergamo!”.
The answer to pretty much everything in Italy is likely to be Pizza…
The chocolate bread was particularly delightful. Stunning architecture and brightly coloured shop fronts made for a brilliant afternoon, which I topped with a coffee looking out over the city in the terrace bar above the funicular station.
My guest for afternoon coffee…
The next day I linked up with the rest of the guys and our Italian driver Alex, who drove them from Milan airport.
The Pizzeria is THIS way! Driver Alex gets directions from a clearly patriotic Italian lady!
Once reunited in Bergamo on the Friday, we set about finding somewhere for lunch, being directed to a great Restaurant and Pizzeria, before the three hour drive that followed, gradually going higher and higher into the mountains, the views spectacular, and snow -covered peaks abounding, heading for Gallio. Omar Pedrotti and all the guys at the festival were great. They love their metal and put this festival on with friendliness and enthusiasm.
How the Danes managed to rape and pillage anything is beyond me….Paul, Lars & Jan giving it their best Three Stooges impression!
As the sun went down, we ate yet more Pizza – Italy does that to you…went back to the hotel in the village to relax a little before the show. We were onstage around 1 am, and the temperature had plummeted! Even though it was mid-June, I don’t think I’ve ever been so cold onstage! for once I was glad I wasn’t having to play bass as well as sing, I have no idea how Jan, Mike and Paul could feel their fingers! Nevertheless, we delivered a powerful set of WITCH CROSS songs old and new and disappeared into the night.
“Can the Can” – Lars overdoes it…
A big thanks to Elisa Catozzi and Sandro Chiozzi for their superb photos of the gig. The next day, the guys dropped me off in Bergamo on their way to Milan where I chilled out for a while before flying back to Spain. I’d only been home for a day when my partner Miki and I headed North from the coast of Almeria to the town of Cazorla for their Blues Festival – enjoying it this time from the audience perspective! More of that in Part Two!
The new Witch Cross album, ‘AXE TO GRIND’ is out now on Hells Headbangers, available as CD, LP in blue or black vinyl,or on iTunes. Click on the image below to visit the shop.
Axe to Grind from Witch Cross – now streaming live for a limited time!!
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Today, reunited Danish heavy metal cult WITCH CROSS stream the entirety of their comeback album, Axe to Grind, at tastemaking web-portal InvisibleOranges.com. Released this week by HELLS HEADBANGERS on both CD and LP formats, WITCH CROSS’ Axe to Grind is the band’s first full-length of all-new material since 1984’s heavy metal classic Fit for Fight, reissued to widespread acclaim last year by HELLS HEADBANGERS. Picking up where they left off in the glorious ’80s, WITCH CROSS nevertheless inject their trademark power & glory with a newfound urgency and grit that never betrays their roots in the ancient ways of heavy metal mayhem. Neither “old school” nor “new school,” WITCH CROSS prove that the masters are back – and school’s in session! Hear the proof for yourself, as the entire album is streamed for a limited time courtesy of InvisibleOranges.com: http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2013/07/album-stream-witch-cross-axe-to-grind/
 Tracklisting for WITCH CROSS’ Axe to Grind
1. March of the Vikings
2. Demon in the Mirror 3. Ride With the Wind 4. Metal Nation 5. Awakening-Pandoras Box 6. Axe to Grind 7. Bird of Prey 8. Lost Without Warning 9. Parl of the Machine 10. Chelsea 100 11. Beyond the Veil Says guitarist Mike Kock, “WITCH CROSS are thrilled to be working with HELLS HEADBANGERS on the new album Axe to Grind. We were blown away with the work that HELLS HEADBANGERS did with the re-release of Fit for Fight and the boxsets etc. We couldn’t ask for a better and more supportive label!“
In preparation for this monumental comeback album, WITCH CROSS unleashed a flurry of teasers for Axe to Grind. The first video from the album, “Demon in the Mirror,” can be viewed in its entirety here: http://youtu.be/66eycbDlm-Y. Additionally, a teaser link for the album can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu_MX6z7wtI, and the full track for “Demon in the Mirror” be heard here: http://hellsheadbangers.bandcamp.com/album/axe-to-grind.
WITCH CROSS will be playing shows all across Europe this summer in promotion of Axe to Grind. For more info, consult the official WITCH CROSS website at www.witchcross.dk.
“When you need metal, go to hell!”
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Italy bound with Witch Cross
Just a couple of weeks to catch our breath this month, and then its all systems go for WITCH CROSS again as we converge from Spain, England, Denmark and Sweden on Gallio in Northern Italy to appear at the Sun Valley Metal Fest! We’re really looking forward to this one. We’ll have exclusive copies of the new album ‘Axe to Grind’ on sale, a full ten days ahead of its worldwide official release date, and we’re going to be performing tracks from both that and the classic ‘Fit for Fight’ album for our Italian fans.
We’re really pumped with the reviews we’ve been getting for the new album. We put a lot of hard work into it, and it’s nice to see it being received so well, but the acid test is not what it means to the critics – it’s what it means to the fans…we hope you like it, and that it rocks your world!
Bio
(Born: 20th May,1958, Chesterfield, England) is a Bass Player and Lead Vocalist. Formerly with Tubeless Hearts, he played with English Pop band Christie from 1990 to 2003, and featured in Graham Oliver’s Saxon on two European tours, before other commitments resulted in John Ward taking over vocal duties for the resulting Oliver/Dawson Saxon CD releases. Nevertheless, he appeared on Graham Oliver’s solo album End of an Era returning the favour after Oliver had appeared on Tubeless Hearts Three CD. READ MORE….
Tubeless Hearts 1994
Christie 1990
with Graham Oliver
BC Sweet 2008
CD’s AVAILABLE NOW!
Download my 2009 solo album FOR FREE!!!
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CHRISTIE
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