Any Heavy Metal fan with a modicum of interess in the history behind the style has some knowledge about the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal - aka NWOBHM, musical movement that took place in the UK during the first half of the 80s and gave the world bands such as Saxon, Angel Witch, Def Leppard and the huge Iron Maiden. From this true musical fever came the seeds which, years later, would give us fruits like the Thrash Metal, Doom Metal, Death Metal and Black Metal - a fact that in itself qualifies the period in question as one of the most relevant in the history of Heavy Metal. What few people are aware of is that, among the many sub-scenes who evolved during that years, a very curious one took place in the country of Wales. Its main feature is to have given birth to a considerable ammount of bands which used the regional Welsh tongue in their compositions, in opposite to the English tongue priviledged in the remaining British territory. Althought they never actually reached the (reasonable) sucess of English-singing contenders such as Persian Risk and Traitors Gate, the fact is that this groups, with their fidelty to their local roots, created a fascinating history, yet not a extensively documented one until now.
In fact, the hardest difficulties we face when trying to (re) tell this story are the scarcity of sources and, most of all, the absolute rarity of most of the releases made from these bands - in fact, as any perseverant NWOBHM collector will be keen to admit, it's simply impossible to trustfully state what's out there in this subject, with some itens being known just on the basis of one or two examples. A great pioneer in this research is Malc McMillan, author of the colossal "The NWOBHM Encyclopedia" - a book which provided many of the information shared here. But, as this mighty tome was released back in 2001, a considerable number of discoveries were done from then to now, so it's reasonable to think that some kind of update to it is not completely out of context. A new version of McMillan's book will appear very soon, but we hope this page can be useful until this volume actually materialize.
Below are listed the bands known by NWOBHM consumers / collectors, followed by a description of its career and discography as accurate as I was able to be. Again, most of the releases are very very rare, so keep in mind that new discoveries and / or corrections can be made anytime in the future, changing what is written here. Anyway, here we go:
CEFFYL PREN
To this moment, two 7" from this obscure Glamorgan band are known to exist. The first slice of vynil dates from 1984 and it was released by the minuscule Anthem Records. Presenting "Collasant Eu Gwaed" and a welsh-language version of Krokus' "Bedside Radio" (re-baptized "Roc Ar Yr Radio"), this single divides opinions among collectors: some love it, and some seem to hate it with great energy and enthusiasm. Recently, a second item from 1987 was discovered - edited by the equally small Graffeg Records, it has "Roc Roc Nadolig" and "Bangkok" as the B side. At the recording credits, you can see that drummer Tim Lewis is the only musician to take part on both singles - something which is curious, at the very least. Anyway, the music contained on this effort is quite listenable, an acessive yet powerful hard rock with cool keyboard arrangements throughout. Both songs are pretty good, and NWOBHM aficionados will surely enjoy the music contained on this humble 7" - ornated with very funny sleeves, by the way. Apparently, the band was gone before the end of the decade, and no additional recordings of Ceffyl Pren are known at present. Whatever the story, the fact is that they had a very cool bandname - "ceffyl pren" was a public punishment for thieves very common in the ancient Welsh society: the criminal was forced to sit on a wooden horse (the "ceffyl pren") and conducted around the village, submited to the scorn (and eventual lapidation) of the crowd.
Collasant Eu Gwaed (7", 1984), Roc Roc Nadolig (7", 1987).
CRATOR
Blas Da (EP, 1979?)
CRYS
Maybe the most "classic" of the bands discussed here (and probably the one who went to greater achievements among them all), Crys was originally formed at the end of the 70s by the Forde brothers, namely Scott (b) and Liam (v/g). Their first vinyl release (i'm not sure at the moment if they ever get to release a demo tape) was a 7" single from 1980, incluiding "Lan Yn Y Glogedd" and "Cawd Symud" as a B side. The single in question was released by the minuscule Click Records and its (very ugly) picture sleeve depictes the four musicians posing around a grafitti with the name of the band. along the Forde brothers, the musicians involved were Alun Morgan (g) and Nicky Samuel (d). Musically speaking, the two tracks of this humble release can be compared to acts such as Black Rose and Fist - maybe not in the same league when it comes to quality, but still competent contenders on NWOBHM. It appears that the local repercussion of this humble debut was pretty respectable, once the reasonably conceited Sain Records (one of the most active labels on the region even today) was interested enough in Crys to sign the band and assume the responsibility for their future releases. In 1981 came out the first Crys LP, "Rhyfelwr". Containing ten tracks, this vinyl is considered by some collectors as a hidden classic of the genre, althought most of us are not lucky enough to have a chance to find this LP and form an opinion about its music. Next year saw the release of the second full-lenght, called "Tymor Yr Heliwr" and presenting a musical style very similar to their previous release - but, according to some sources, without achieving the same level of quality of its predecessor. Still in 1982, Crys would appear at the local band compilation "Gorau Sgrech - Sgrechian Corwen", alongside acts such as the mods from Ail Symudiad, Tich Gwilym (guitarist who performed with Budgie several times) and the respected folk artist Meic Stevens. At first 1983, the band decides to think higher, and takes their big chance of being known outside Wales by playing at the famous "Friday Rock Show" from BBC. This radio show allowed many hopefuls to appear to the masses by playing a few live takes on their studios and having this songs broadcasted for BBCs huge audience. As far as we know, Crys were the only welsh-language Heavy Metal outfit to be ever featured on the program, and at January 28th 1983 four of their songs were aired, incluiding the first (and, possibly, only) two songs ever sang in english by the band, "It's About Time" and "Rocking Along". The other two themes of the night were "Pendoncwyr" and "Merched Gwillt A Gwin", both taken from their second LP. The year 1984 saw this Welsh strugglers taking pride of place in a new compilation of Welsh-language bands by Sain, this one named "Barod Am Roc". In fact, the name of this compilation was taken from the Crys song included in it, and it seems to be an evident sign that, at least in Wales, the group was enjoying a very promising period. Still, things can always get out of hand, and Crys disappeared from the face of the Earth from the second half of 80s onwards, as their records and achieved goals rapidly fell into oblivion. For many years, no news came from the Crys front, and it seemed to be a safe bet to say that they would be disbanded from the time being. So, it was a huge surprise to find "Roc Cafe", CD released in 1996 that shows Crys in great shape, playing with a heartful performance and with many interesting compositions under their belts. The info about this release is not very abrangent, and we are not really sure if it's a recent recording session or a compilation of never-before-released material - but, whatever the story, the CD is a good bite on the most acessive side of NWOBHM, so it would be good news if Crys were somehow still active, keeping alive the flame of no less than 25 years of Heavy Metal history.
To this moment, three songs are known to have been recorded by this nearly forgotten group. Two of them ("Blwyddyn Arall" and "Nyth Y Frân") are featured in a independent single from 1984, a really scarce item which belongs on the shelfs of a very small number of collectors. It seems that Dorcas was operating in a musical style near to 70's Hard / Heavy music, with intrincated guitar arrangements in a Wishbone Ash-ish vein. A curiosity about this record is that each of the tracks present a different bass player (one of them being Deiniol Morris, also involved with Maffia Mr. Huws), which lead one to wonder how unstable their line-up should be at the time. The third song known by Dorcas is "Does Dim Mwy O Win", a music that have been circulating on NWOBHM circles for a while, as a mp3 file. For a long time, this song was credited as being taken from an old demo tape, but now it is known that the song was in fact ripped from an almost unknown compilation called "Cawd Reiat", released by Sain in 1986. Anyway, as no one came out saying anything about owning a copy of such slice of vinyl, more enlightening details about the recording session are a mystery yet to be revealed.
The band was assembled by Louis Thomas after leaving the folk / rock concern Bran. The first official release of this bunch seems to have been a self-financed 7'' single, featuring "Fodan" as its main focus of attention. Unfortunately, all efforts made to discover the name of the B-side proved to be unsucessful - but anyway, it seems like the music itself wasn't yet out-and-out NWOBHM, being much more in a punk rock vein. The other known release from Louis A'r Rocyrs is a single released by Sain Records in 1984, containing "Sianel 3" and "Y Sipsiwns" as B-side. The info I could gather indicates a shift of direction, both songs being pretty close to typical Hard Rock territory, something which justifies the inclusion of the band in this NWOBHM article. Anyway, it seems to have been a pretty short-lived venture, and soon Louis Thomas would return to sail on secure folk music waters, being this scarce and hard-to-find material a memento of his "metal" days. In fact, both singles are not really sought-after artifacts, and still can be bought on reasonable prices, assuming you can locate one of these itens in the first place.
DISCOGRAPHY:
Fodan (7'', 1983), Sianel 3 (7'', 1984).
Here is a case which demands some special attention. The history of this group is known even with considerable details: Maffia Mr Huws is formed at the tail end of the 70s, and their first known release is a 7'' single released by Fflach in 1982, featuring "Gitar Yn Y To" and "Reggae Racs" as a B-side. At the time, the musicians were Hefin Huws (v, g) Les Morrison (v), Sion Jones (g), Deiniol Morris (b) and Gwyn Jones (d), and before the year was out they contributed to a compilation called "Sesiwn Sosban", beside bands like Ellifant and Derec Brown A'r Racaracwir. In 1983, the band (a very sucessful local outfit at the time) released by Sain Records a LP called "Yr Orchr Arall". Unfortunately, Hefin Huws decided to leave the band some time later, to create a new outfit called Llwybr Cyhoeddus - later, he would also play in a punk band called Ahnrefn. Singer Les Morrison also left, and then Maffia Mr Huws was forced to reinvent themselves, shortening their name to Maffia and releasing a 7'' single in 1985. Sion, Deiniol and Gwyn were now assisted by Neil Edwards (v) and Alan Edwards (k, who may or may not be the Panza Division's ex-bassist), and the songs now included were "Nid Divedd Y Gan" e Newyddion Heddiw". Tragically, Alan died in a car accident in 1987, which may have led to the premature end of the band. Not so long ago, I finally located some mp3 files of a Maffia album called "Da Nim Yn O'th Gem Fach Di", which supoosedly came out in 1986 or thereabouts - and an album that, I must confess, I wasn't even aware of until a small time before I found these files. Listening to the music, it becomes clear that Maffia were more than happy to add multiple influences to their songs - there are some pretty heavy numbers, such as "Cigfran" and the live medley of “Dant Y Llew / Hysbysebion”, but we can also hear some punk rock, some pop music (which reminds me of Men At Work sometimes) and even generous elements of reggae (!). So, it's up to every listener decide if Maffia can be called NWOBHM or not - personally, I think that if (very good, admitedly) bands such as Liaison and Anniversary are highy regarded amongst collectors, there's no strong reason to ignore Maffia's work, as it has a fair bit of heaviness on display. Anyway, I'm glad to say that Maffia Mr Huws reunited for an one-off show in 2000, and since then have been gigging sporadically - incluiding a sucessful appearance at 2004 edition of Faenol Festival. It is reported that a CD collection of old material is planned for a near future, and it's nice to know that these struggling musicians are still doing the rounds and playing good music. More to come very soon - watch this space...
MWG
OMEGA
Not really much is known about this mysterious band, apart from being one of the few welsh-language NWOBHM groups fortunate enough to release its own LP before plunging into oblivion. With two of its musicians (Graham Land and Bev Jones) being also involved with Rohan, Omega took its place on the "Gorau Sgrech - Sgrechian Corwen" compilation in 1982 (with the song "Nansi") before editing this self-titled album the following year. It is said that this record shows a band in a progressive rock style, but with strong guitar histrionics in a typical NWOBHM mould. Not many people will ever be able to lay eyes on such an item, left alone listen to the music it holds, but saying "NWOBHM" is a safe enough bet in this case to justifies Omega's inclusion here. Apart from that, no one knows for sure if there are anything else from Omega waiting for us out there, so I guess we will have to wait for a while before we can give more accurate info about the band.
Gorau Sgrech - Sgrechian Corwen (LP compilation, 1982), Omega (LP, 1983).