#witchkiller

"This dark, delicious retelling of Hansel and Gretel reimagines the world through the eyes of a girl awakening to her own strength." -- Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Gretel had no choice.

Her brother Hansel was in danger, and she had to kill the witch. Five months later, she is still ripped from her dreams and awoken by the noise of her sword tearing into the witch’s flesh. Her waking hours are no better. Hansel has grown more and more like their monstrous father by the day. The society she now inhabits has trapped her in an endless cycle of balls with nobles who sneer at her family’s new money. And worst of all, her greedy father has issued his newest ploy to increase his wealth. Gretel must marry, and soon.

Devastated at the prospect of a lifetime with an old, decrepit husband, she flees a ball…and runs right into Prince Wilfried. When Gretel divulges the reality of her situation, Wilfried comes up with a solution. He is also being pressured to find a suitable future queen -- they can both delay the inevitable by faking an engagement. Gretel agrees, and what starts as a ruse quickly deepens as she finds herself falling for the handsome prince.

But in the quiet of night, still trapped in her castle with her memories, Gretel feels the walls closing in and ventures into the neighboring woods. There, she meets Katharina, a beautiful witch who introduces her to the witch community. But these women aren’t evil -- they’re healers, and Gretel is drawn to them.

When information comes to light implicating her family’s involvement in a traitorous plot and endangering the lives of herself and those she’s grown to care about, Gretel must ask herself -- did the wrong person die in that cottage? And can the Witchkiller become a witch?

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Rating: 3/5

Book Blurb:

"This dark, delicious retelling of Hansel and Gretel reimagines the world through the eyes of a girl awakening to her own strength." -- Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Gretel had no choice.

Her brother Hansel was in danger, and she had to kill the witch. Five months later, she is still ripped from her dreams and awoken by the noise of her sword tearing into the witch’s flesh. Her waking hours are no better. Hansel has grown more and more like their monstrous father by the day. The society she now inhabits has trapped her in an endless cycle of balls with nobles who sneer at her family’s new money. And worst of all, her greedy father has issued his newest ploy to increase his wealth. Gretel must marry, and soon.

Devastated at the prospect of a lifetime with an old, decrepit husband, she flees a ball…and runs right into Prince Wilfried. When Gretel divulges the reality of her situation, Wilfried comes up with a solution. He is also being pressured to find a suitable future queen -- they can both delay the inevitable by faking an engagement. Gretel agrees, and what starts as a ruse quickly deepens as she finds herself falling for the handsome prince.

But in the quiet of night, still trapped in her castle with her memories, Gretel feels the walls closing in and ventures into the neighboring woods. There, she meets Katharina, a beautiful witch who introduces her to the witch community. But these women aren’t evil -- they’re healers, and Gretel is drawn to them.

When information comes to light implicating her family’s involvement in a traitorous plot and endangering the lives of herself and those she’s grown to care about, Gretel must ask herself -- did the wrong person die in that cottage? And can the Witchkiller become a witch?

Review:

A reimagining of Hansel and Gretel featuring a girl who is determined to make her own path despite her family being involved in treachery.... and forces her to ask if the witch was the real villain of her story. Hansel and Gretel faced off against the witch and Hansel killed the witch... or thats the story they've been telling everyone when the truth is that Gretel killed the witch and Hansel took the credit for it. Now her brother has become a fame hungry abusive person and her own family wants to sell her hand off in marriage... yet all Gretel wants is to escape and be free. She agrees to a fake engagement to a handsome prince but then she meets Katharina, a gorgeous witch who introduces Gretel to the witch community and Gretel is beginning to realize that she might have been wrong and that the real monsters are much closer to her than she could ever imagine... and that the witches are innocent. This is a retelling with a soft sapphic romance in it. I was hoping for a bit more because it felt a bit lackluster unfortunately. I wish there was more happening but the story got a bit boring. I like the premise of the story and I was intrigued by the retelling and sapphic romance aspect, but the actual story itself felt slow and a bit dragged on. I think that other YA readers might have a fun time with it though.

Release Date: October 7, 2025

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

Brocas Helm: Into Battle (1984)

This album's exceedingly plain, even dull -- ok, butt-ugly -- cover art says a lot about its creators' impoverished independent status, but it also fails to do any justice to one of America's great '80s cult metal bands: Brocas Helm!

Though they came into existence in the same time and place (1982, the San Francisco Bay Area) as thrash metal speedsters like Exodus and L.A. transplants Metallica, Brocas Helm were musically aligned with fellow castle metal knights like Manilla Road, Cirith Ungol, Witchkiller, and the neighboring Griffin.

Meaning that band members Bobbie R. Wright (vocals and guitar), Jim Schumacher (bass and, uh, magic!), and Jack Hayes (drums) took most of their cues from select late '70s metal pioneers like Rainbow and Judas Priest and especially New Wave of British Heavy Metal champions like Iron Maiden and Angel Witch.

In 1984, Brocas Helm inked deals with First Strike Records (for America) and Steamhammer (for Europe) and then bravely rode Into Battle wielding little (certainly little recording budget) but the cardboard Excalibur depicted in the hilarious band photo overhead.

Ah, but Brocas Helm were blessed with the most unshakable, if innocent, heavy metal faith as they rode out of the thunderstorm on the hooves of "Metallic Fury," sought ancient treasure on "Dark Rider," showed their Tolkien fandom with "In the Ithilstone," and slayed the dragon with a six-string axe on "Warriors of the Dark."

No, seriously, even those self-appointed 'Kings of Metal,' Manowar, had nothing on Brocas Helm's lyrics, see for yourselves:

"And against a spear of lightning; A figure rides the stars; His steed a dragon red and gold; His weapon a black guitar.

My fingers played like hellfire; As I played the killing chord; The dragon screams and falls from sky; As if pierced by magic sword."

What did I tell you?

But Brocas Helm were at their finest and fiercest when the title track, "Here to Rock," and "Night Siege" accelerated to a frantic gallop, armed with Wright's explosive shredding, which came jabbing and slashing all unworthy 'false metal' poseurs to shreds.

Indeed, with surprisingly powerful performances like these, one can't help but wonder what might have been, if only these metallic knights could have benefitted from even the slightest financial backing.

Instead, as I once wrote in the All-Music Guide, Brocas Helm waited four long years to deliver their second album, Black Death, and issued nothing but demos in the 1990s, before re-recording several old favorites for 2004's Defender of the Crown collection.

Ultimately, although they were clearly doomed to waste away in a castle metal dungeon, Brocas Helm's influence later reverberated through the Bay Area metal scene, thanks to 21st Century acolytes like Slough Feg, Saviours, Hammers of Misfortune, and Ludicra.

Ashbury: Endless Skies (1983)

Ashbury is the real-life manifestation of Tenacious D’s musical parodies of Dungeons & Dragons ...

You know: a partly acoustic, partly electric collision of medieval minstrelsy and modern castle metal, used to soundtrack epic quests for brave knights, fair maidens, fearsome dragons and powerful wizards, for example: 

“You see the lightening flashing, but you know not what it's for; There looks to be a stallion with a rider on its back. He looks to be a wizard, or perhaps a magic man; With eyes of liquid fire, golden staff within his hand. And he rides above the mountains with the secret that he holds ... The time has come, the people must be told.”

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction ...

Formed in late ‘70s Oklahoma, first as Rigid Spur, then Ashbury South, the proudly mustachioed band built a local following by playing AC/DC and Van Halen covers, broke up, relocated to Arizona, reassembled and toured across the Southwest.

Fast-forward to January of 1983, and guitar shredder Randy Davis (also bass and synths) and his brother Rob (vocals, acoustic guitar) had composed enough original material to enter Tucson’s Westwood Studios with drummer Johnny Ray and lay down ten tracks for Endless Skies.

“Something is calling me, I hear it calling me; Leading me far away, a journey of many days; On a stormy sea, through eternity; To the magic land ...”

And before we go any further, let me repeat my disclaimer: abandon hope all ye who enter here expecting a fiery and bombastic fantasy metal shellacking à la Cirith Ungol or Manila Road!

Because spineless production made folksy fare full of friendly vocal harmonies like “Take Your Love Away” and “Madman” sound like The Little River Band, and -- sorry to say -- but lead singer Rob Davis frankly isn’t fit to shine Jack Black’s battle boots.

Yes, “The Warning” and “Hard Fight” stack Randy’s distorted riffs and fluid leads behind Rob’s overly prioritized acoustic, but the only full-blooded metal song in sight is the aptly named “Vengeance,” which would fit right in with third-tier New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands like, say, Pagan Altar or Widow.

“As the moonlight overtakes me, I walk on through the night; Vengeance still evades me, as the Dark Lord holds the Nine; Time now passing quickly, dark victory is near; A hero's badly needed, with courage free of fear”

Had Ashbury recorded a few more songs of this ilk and the similarly muscular second half of the otherwise piano-led prog-fest “Endless Skies,” this album may have earned respectful devil horns from Dungeon Master Ronnie James Dio.

As it was, despite a bespoke cover painting contributed by one Ernie Polo (Marco!), Ashbury’s privately pressed LP never made it out of the underground, and a brief flirtation with Polydor towards the end of ‘83 sadly came to naught when the label suggested the group go folk or go home.

Instead, Ashbury stuck to their schizophrenic guns and eventually returned with a second album in 2010 and a third in 2018 -- the latter after the inveterate heavy metal archaeologists at High Roller Records unearthed Endless Skies for the deluxe reissue you see here.

But you’ve been warned ... approach with caution.

“So shall it be written, so shall it be done. Came the warning from the prophet; And it came to pass before the rising sun.”

Nasty Savage: Nasty Savage (1985)

While they rarely enter the conversation nowadays, Tampa, Florida’s Nasty Savage were legit first-generation thrashers, deserving of some credit, alongside fellow pioneers like Metallica, Slayer, Exodus, Exciter, et al, for helping the genre proliferate within the underground tape-trading community.

Led by natural-born exhibitionist and pro-wrestling enthusiast ‘Nasty’ Ronnie Galetti, the band issued a pair of demos -- 1984's “Wage of Mayhem” and “Raw Mayhem” -- before contributing a track to the Metal Massacre IV compilation and joining the Metal Blade roster.

But, by the time this self-titled debut arrived in August of 1985, Nasty Savage had been left in the dust by their fast-evolving thrash metal peers, making revamped demos like “Metal Knights,” “Dungeons of Pleasure” and “Psychopath” seem terribly simplistic, even naive, by comparison.

Mind you, musicianship wasn’t the problem, because guitarists Ben Meyer and David Austin, bassist Fred Dregischan and drummer Curtis Beeson showed ample skills on intricate workouts like “Asmodeus,” instrumental “The Morgue,” and the requisite acoustic interlude “Garden of Temptation.” 

But, when it came to speedier fare like “No Sympathy” and “Instigator” (tellingly, now a minority of the band’s repertoire), the boys almost sounded sloppy, if compared to the high-velocity precision of a Hetfield and Hammett, a Hanneman and King, or a Holt and Hunolt.

(Who knew so many thrash guitarists started with ‘H’?)

And then there was ‘Nasty’ Ronnie, whose tuneless falsetto was a real liability on more conventional head-bangers like “Gladiator” and “Fear Beyond the Vision,” while his outsized personality and shock rock theatrics (a legacy of Kiss, Alice Cooper, etc.) no longer jived with thrash’s austere, “no image” ethos, as bands abandoned any vestige of makeup and bombastic showmanship to further distance themselves from the competing hair metal poseurs.

I know what you must be saying right about now: “What a hater!”

But, as I sat here spinning this album today, I simply started rattling off the reasons why an ‘80s teenage thrash maniac like myself chose to pass on Nasty Savage, back in the day, and spent his hard earned cash on some of the other, better, bands cited overhead.

So, all I can offer ‘Nasty’ Ronnie and co. by way of apology is that they can have the last laugh, because here I am revisiting their works 35 years later to satisfy my nostalgia for the music of my youth.