WITCH – The Hex Is On..And Then Some
WITCH – The Hex Is On..And Then Some
Lost Realm Records
Release date: 30/01/2026
Review by Jon Deaux
7/10
“The Hex Is On… And Then Some” is the specialty of WITCH to be the one and only band that actually started club fires, had beefs with the bassist of Mötley Crüe, and managed to pack 1500 people into their club without having to sign a record label to achieve the feat. This record comes right at the end, like your ex showing up at your wedding: decades too late, but making an entrance nonetheless, and absolutely refusing to read the room.
It was the club where the hair metal rejects liked to congregate, and I am giving them the ultimate compliment that I, with my jaded calloused heart, can muster. WITCH had it in spades: more pyrotechnics than Times Square, more fish net stockings than every goth band at the goth convention combined, more self-induced wounds—self-inflicted because, Punky Peru (drummer) had no idea what the secret to success was until that additional element of pain and suffering was added along with ALL THE FIREWORKS and BIG HAIR, and, of course, the requirement of self-abnegation was merely what was required to achieve success because, Punky Peru (still the drummer) had no idea that less is more.
The 1984 cuts are an example of that perfect, primal anger, like a band that realizes that maybe, just maybe, the ceiling will catch fire tonight—not just some sort of mythology, some sort of symbolism that sums up exactly how they feel, but literally.
‘Nervous Wreck’ is a manifesto written in eyeliner and blind desperation.
‘Damnation’ a demonstration of how this group was just as turned on by “the leather-laden danger” of Judas Priest as it was “the full-blast, over-the-top pageantry of KISS,” either complete genius or utter non-sequitur, at least they had the full-blast fervor of theater geeks that discovered their essential sound through a “Marshall amp, and went for that full-blast image instead.
‘Bewitched’ and ‘Wet N’ Wild’ are, of course, just that—you could guess that two such songs could only exist in such a manner in 1984 Southern California, “somehow amazingly horny, sparkly-stupid, and loaded enough with just plain “pluck” to get you into line and swear that fishnets ‘n’ pentagrams were somehow essential for understanding how the whole damned universe worked, yeah, right.”
‘Cinderella In Black Leather’ is the kind of title that one feels the impulsive need to turn around and plant one heck of a kiss on the cheek of the person who made the title itself spot on when it comes to hitting the nail right on the head. The glass slipper is replaced by a motorcycle, the fairy godmother is indulging in an illicit fireworks business, and Prince Charming is sporting tattoos and arrest warrants. Cinderella that we all richly deserve but lack the guts to claim.
Then we get to the Nobody Sleeps songs from 1987, and although I don’t know what it is, I think that this polish is somehow tragic, like watching this person try to be on their best behavior at one of those family reunions that they shouldn’t be attending, and went purely to overturn the table, lighting the curtains on fire.
‘Victory Without Pain’ and ‘Blond Alert’ are the product of a band trying to get right all the edges to make the radio, and somehow the finish quality is such that it is just the most goddamn adorable thing to watch, like watching a feral kitten try to use a litter box.
These demos of the latter half of the ‘80s are WITCH at their most fragile—to be swinging for the same home runs as they’ve ever been swinging for, but you can just tell it must’ve been costing them.
‘Take Me Away’ gets a double dose as they obviously just passionately believed in this song. It’s almost as if they knew their time was running out. The clock is ticking as grunge is looming in the distance as a storm cloud with flannel. But they’re still here pining over being bewitched and wet’n’ wild as if it’s 1984.
And of course, there are the “GOD BOX Sessions & Demos”, with Howard Leese tracks dating back to 1996, and it’s like catching this crazy party buddy of yours at the office—well, they’re the same, but better conditioned, as the craziness boils underneath the surface of their performance. Oh, Howard Leese, bless his heart—this guy brought the nuts of this band into the ’90s kicking and screaming.
‘Mad For Life’ and ‘Games That People Play’ are as grunge as it gets, as powerful as nobody needed, but they definitely had a piece of the heart.
‘Playing In The Rain’ may well be the most seriously heavy recording WITCH has ever laid down, and here is a collection of individuals who have been playing to paid-up crowds for the better part of their lives, blowing the house down to the ground, and are still out there playing to this day, still performing with the same level of passion and conviction in the late 1990s, when, there just wasn’t a soul who gave a shit about hair metal bands.“
The production quality on both of these CDs is, of course, very high—the standards of quality that Howard Leese has brought to Heart and Bad Company aren’t likely to suffer any because of this music, and frankly, it’s too bad. “WITCH has always been at its best when things have gotten out of hand,” as they say in their bio. “When one could smell the hairspray and see the scorchmarks.” None of that is present here—it’s just too well-produced, like a well-worn leather jacket.
An imperative listen for anyone who ever thought that the idea of success has ever been the best idea and that the kind of eternal perfection that can only exist through the most incredible close calls may well be the kind that happens through the art that occurs as a close call. They never managed to score the stadium show, the ‘Cherry Pie’ or ‘Unskinny Bop,’ the record deal with Gene Simmons, and to be honest, the record deal credentials of Gene Simmons aren’t exactly high standards, if you know what I mean, and I do, but that means an immense lot to someone. They were given the next best thing possible—the perfection that is excess.
Plainly too weird for the mainstream crowd, too dramatic for the punk crowd, too dangerous for the insurance companies, and way too passionately committed to the insanity of ever actually “making it.” But the honest truth? The world is a better place for WITCH, having literally and figuratively been burned to the ground on the Sunset Strip.
“The Hex Is On… And Then Some” conjures up images of the various bad hair days and questionable outfits that undoubtedly will be chronicled in the pages of a book.
It’s also a testament to every group of musicians who had the potential to be this big and weren’t, every group who burned out a little too fast, every band who looked at setting ceilings on fire as a solid marketing strategy. It’s a love letter to failure, to the excess, to the utter absurdity of a strategy in which harm to oneself was a forward momentum.
TRACKLISTING:
CD1 + LP
01. Nervous Wreck
02. Damnation
03. Bewitched
04. Wet N’ Wild
05. Cinderella (In Black Leather)
06. Can’t Take Our Rock
07. Victory Without Pain
08. Blond Alert
09. Take Me Away
10. Hit The Road
11. 1:45
CD2 (Bonus Disc – GOD BOX Sessions & Demos)
01. Mad For Life
02. Games That People Play
03. Playing In The Rain
04. Black Magic
05. Pay The Due
06. Take Me Away
07. Nothing Lasts Forever
08. Crazy
09. Conviction
LINKS:
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