Death Penalty

Witchfinder General | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 12, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Heavy Metal Records/Ka
• ASIN: B0002B65JM
• Also Available in: Paperback  |  Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,447,323 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Limited 180gm blue vinyl pressing of this 1982 album in gatefold sleeve. Witchfinder General are a Doom Metal band from Stourbridge, England. They were part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal scene and have been cited as a major influence on the Doom Metal genre. --This text refers to the Vinyl edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Witchfinder General - 'Death Penalty' (Heavy Metal), July 9, 2006

By 

Mike Reed (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Death Penalty (Audio CD)

Originally put out in 1982,this was the Witchfinder's first of two 'proper' releases.Top notch NWOBHM/doom metal to be fully experienced here.Best tunes include "Invisible Hate",title track "Death Penalty",the powerful "Burning A Sinner" and "R.I.P.".Line-up:Zeeb Parkes-vocals,Phil Cope-guitar,Woolfy Trope-bass and Graham Ditchfield-drums.This is WELL worth checking out.Should appeal to fans of Iron Maiden,Saint Vitus,Saxon,Grim Reaper and possibly Candlemass.A should-have.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The missing link between BLACK SABBATH and CATHEDRAL, November 23, 2002

By 

Nicole Emery "purpletemple" (Brussels Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death Penalty (Audio CD)

When I bought this album I was about 13 and a huge Black sabbath fan!How could I resist the name of the band and most of all the cover at that age-by the way I'm not Nicole but Phil, Nicole's husband.Witchfinder General is one of the first Black Sabbath's clones, the voice is VERY close to Ozzy's, the riffs are VERY close to IOMMI's-the solos are pretty FAR but anyway..., the songs are VERY Sabbath-alike.
Technicaly speaking, those guys are bad but I think it's the whole package that makes it worth.
It's fun(dark but fun),pretty heavy and once again...the cover is just so hilarious.
Witchfinder general certainly didn't invent the powder but probably showed the way to bands like TROUBLE, St VITUS or even the great CATHEDRAL.
Anyway W.G. was doing Black Sabbath when Black sabbath wasn't doing it anymore.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic underground metal LP with not so great production, August 1, 2010

By 

Tom P. the Underground Navigator (Park Forest, IL USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Death Penalty (Audio CD)

Coventry's Witchfinder General were like the black sheep of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. While most of the bands in the scene were pioneering an embryonic form of thrash metal consisting of sped-up Judas Priest and Motorhead song structures, these guys were still longingly clutching their 10-year-old Black Sabbath records and formed the band in 1979 as a means to create similar sounds of their own.

While perhaps not in the league with the work of said Birmingham heavy metal progenitors, Witchfinder General's debut LP "Death Penalty," released in January 1982, has a few things going for it. The overall spirit is one of drug-addled abandon (i.e., sex, drugs and rock & roll), a key facet of the sound to begin with. The lyrics to "Free Country" drive this point home: "Lines of speed on a mirror face/Sniff it up through a biro case." These could be seen as a little tongue in cheek, that and the infamous LP sleeve photos of a beautiful naked blond woman before and after a pillaging by the Witchfinders. With this all but banned cover art along with the overt drug references, "Death Penalty" remained something of a rare collectors item throughout the '80s and went unreleased on CD for much of the '90s.

That said, to me there aren't as many standouts here as there would be on the follow-up but on the LP's B-side are two songs that are among the group's best ever, the first being "Witchfinder General," which I first heard on Lars Ulrich and Geoff Barton's 1990 "NWOBHM: '79 Revisited" compilation. Totally vintage and catchy with a mindblowing riff interlude from guitarist Phil Cope. Brilliant. The other is "Burning a Sinner," a song along the same lines with a Sabbath-y song structure that really makes it effective and memorable.

The main thing however that holds back most of this album from being truly great is the subpar production. Normally I enjoy a really raw mix, but the drums here have a real "boxy" sound and the bass is very often buried in the background, something that really decreases my personal enjoyment level considerably.

Still, a true collectors item indeed, and this CD reissue on Heavy Metal Records is choice. It comes in a beautiful cardboard slipcase that is like having the original album sleeve and the disc itself is even a replica of the actual vinyl record.

At the time of this writing this one has gone out of print once again and is becoming harder to find at a decent price on the internet.

Yet, if you can overlook its flaws this album is still a cult classic and well worth hunting down.