Customer Reviews

Crippled Lucifer

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

BURNING WITCH rose from the ashes of THORR'S HAMMER in late 1995, a continuing collaboration of members Stephen O'Malley, Greg Anderson, and Jamie Sykes. G. Stuart Dahlquist entered the rank on bass adding a distinct characteral element to the already heavy, massive sound. With the addition of vocalist Edgy 59 the mold was broken, and a unique beast was berthed.

Shortly thereafter Anderson departed for LA to form his own notable GOATSNAKE project (whom G STUART DAHLQUIST also joined in 2000), but the WITCH became more and more defined, an aggresive soundscape of introversion, solitude, and paranoia.

The act hooked up with Steve Albini to record the monstrous "Towers..." in september 1996. This recording symbolizes the momentous kinetic violence in the songwriting, added to the uncanny timing rythm and performance. It has been widely hailed across several underground channels.

During the grim winter of 1996 to 1997 the second exploration "Rift.Canyon.Dreams" was composed, flowing in a more hynotic droning direction, and more visual than before. Previous to the groups lay to ice in march 1997, this session was set to tape, this time with engineer Aarron Evil behind the helm and B.R.A.D. fullfilling percussive damnation. RCD is a fusion of ambience, celestial and impression, and pure doom power. Edgy 59's vocals shine as a beacon of darkness in a tower of light, thundering waves of distoted drone pounding at it's walls. Epic. In July 1998, after failed attempts by several labels, Southern Lord released both recordings as the CD under the "Crippled Lucifer (Seven Psalms For Our Lord Of Light)". Matthias Schneeberger (also known as Schneebee) has lent his skill to the mastering. In an era retroversion, BURNING WITCH stretch boundries of doom into heretofor unexplored areas.

Shortly after the recording of RCD the bad was put on ice indefinitely, although two gigs were performed in autumn 1998 (San Francisco and Los Angeles. One final track was composed, "Insignificant Other" although never laid to tape in the studio. One other song remains unreleased from the RCD sessions, the title track "Rift.Canyon.Dreams".

EDGY 59 has since formed SINISSTAR (signed to Geffen records), G Stuart Dahlquist has joined GOATSNAKE and Stephen O'Malley and G Stuart Dahlquist (together with Greg Anderson of GOATSNAKE) formed the power ambient drone project SUNN O))), whom have released two records of their own ("GrimmRobe Demos" and "00 VOID", both released on Hydra Head Records, USA uring 2000) and have the third ("The Flight OF The Behemoth" coming spring 2001 on Southern Lord, and the fourth ("The White Album") late in 2001/2002.

discography:

"Towers..." LP (1998, Slap A Ham) "Crippled Lucifer (Seven Psalms For Our Lord Of Light) CD (1998, Southern Lord Recordings, 2 editions with different artwork) "Crippled Lucifer (Seven Psalms For Our Lord Of Light) Digipak CD (1998, Bad Acid, European only release) v/a "at the Mountains Of Madness" compilation CD (1999, Miskatonic Foundation featuring "Communion") "Rift.Canyon.Dreams" LP (2000, Merciless Records) split CD/LP with GOATSNAKE (2000, Hydra Head Recordings)

when you were little, it was a relatively simple affair to be knocked down by seemingly very large waves and dragged repeatedly across the floor of the ocean with the entire weight of said ocean directly on top of you cycling furiously somewhere far above. the conscious part of your mind might have been attempting to alert you to possible negative event-horizon but it was easy to ignore. if the ocean were also on fire, it would kind of be like this.

this los angeles 4 piece force the listener to bow before the blackest altars of hell as they shred and crack into the skull. sludgey, thick guitars and low, rumbling, clean bass over pounding, crashing wardrums. i hear them get compared to eyehategod almost every time they are brought up. and i guess that's kind of true, but the witch are much darker and abrasive than even "dopesick" era eyehategod. this is also much sicker and depressed. the vocalist shrieks and screeches, sounding almost exactly like a witch being burned at the stake, and sings almost exactly like ozzy in his sabbath days. this cd combines their two lps, "rift.canyon.dreams." and "towers" onto one slab of plastic. i cant recall the last time a band actually had me scared. look for members in thorr's hammer, goatsnake, and sunn0))).

The primal beauty of Burning Witch's overwhelming guitar distortion allows one to experience each sludgy harmonic and amp cabinet resonance with an aural magnifying glass. These guys go beyond the seemingly formulamatic approach of grinding, slow metal and screaming vocals and impart a sense of tunefulness and songwriting to the doom jam session. Vocalist "Edgy 69" does not dwell forever in a Eyehategod-like, grating screams (which would certainly wreck the material) as he can also sing in a bleak and sorrowful manner with enough melody to warrant a personal Burning Witch karaoke session!

This kind of music is not "easy" to listen to, even if you like this kind of music. It requires your full attention in order to best appreciate the sheer wall of crushing doom! Although I have been unable to test the limits, it is my belief that this album improves the louder you turn it up. And be sure your system can reproduce clean low bass - you'll need it! :)

Only two songs are printed in the liner, but they wisely included a detail shot of "El Triunfo De La Muerte" (a good scan too, I might add) which truly captures the visual scenery brought forth by these massive apocalyptic oscillations! It's doom metal for doom metallers and nothing but.

I think the sheer evilness and heaviness of this makes this the ultimate experience in doom metal. However, I would not recommend this for the faint of heart.

If you like to absorb yourself in painfully slow, sludgy sonic darkness you will be into this. Edgy 59's vocals are pure raw tortured emotion. So glad they re-released. The cd (2 cd's) comes with a great little booklet of art, photos and lyrics.

This is the darkest album i have ever heard. the sound envelopes you, swallows you whole. the guitar is drenched with low frequency distortion, the bass rumbles for an eternity, the drums keeps the slow time signature. This is trance music.the shortest song is close to 7 minutes while the longest is about 15 but time seems to disappear when i listen to this cd.

Bottomline: If you want so dark trance inducing music look no further.

My introduction to this album was on the floor of a van after a night of drinking!!!!!!!(after october 31st no less) as I layed there in a semi headache, looking at the beautiful autum morning(November 1st).. The driver pops in this disc and I was like ''who the HELL is this''..I was reminded of EYEHATEGOD(which is a good thing!) I actually had listened to the mp3 on the southernlord page once before the van floor I think! but that is how I will always rememeber BURNING WITCH!!! they make the FALL season come alive(or die a miserable death) YOUR CHOICE!

This stands on on its on two GLOOMY legs though obvioulsy!!

You could say this was not even made on this planet..maybe on the planet of the band members minds! or some place were energey SCREAMS!! def not for MORTALS..OR ''HUMANS''

The songs crawl and the SCREAMS rage at you!!

''WARNING SIGNS'' is one of the best!!

Sadly southern lord has this OUT OF PRINT!!!!

WHEN WILL THEY REISSIUE IT????!!!!! SOON I HOPE!!!!

One of the most unique albums ever made!!!!! HAILS!!!!!!!!!!!!

The next ring of Doom inwards from Electric Wizard & Warhorse.

I rank this up there with Isolrubin BK's Crash Injury Trauma as the perfect clear-out-the-house music to put on after a party to move all the speed-glazed carbuncles off yr. sofa so you can finally get some #$%^ sleep.

And ya know -- after everyones gone you leave it on, drift off across the underbelly of Hell to the place bad dreams come from, pass through the necrotic veil and emerge on the other side...

The essence of Doom is Catharsis -- and this has it in spades.

Slow churning down tuned guitars, depressive tones, long songs- you know your basic solid doom metal masterpiece. Be forewarned, this is not stoner rock like Fu Manchu/Sleep.