Wither Blister Burn & Peel

Stabbing Westward | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 23, 1996)
• Original Release Date: January 23, 1996
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000002ANG
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (84 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,743 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I didn't pay enough for this, August 12, 2000

By 

"halo_tragedy" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wither Blister Burn & Peel (Audio CD)

Stabbing Westard's second album, Wither Blister Burn + Peel, is one of the most adventurous and experimental albums in Industrial today. It's ten tracks of power, emotion, and intensity that manages to touch your soul in many different ways. The songs "Shame" and "What Do I Have To Do?" deal with feelings of inadequacy with the opposite sex, and are two of the most powerful songs ever recorded, thanks to the amazing guitar, synth, and above all, the brilliant voice of lead singer Christopher Hall. "Sleep", which depicts the horror of incest, is one of the most traumatic songs ever written. This album goes together very well with Stabbing Westward's newest release, Darkest Days.

It's a shame (no pun intended) that this band gets called a Nine Inch Nails wannabe or rip-off. Stabbing Westward is one of the most original and unique bands in all of Industrial, maybe in all of music. It's not that hard to spot that they're highly influenced by NIN, but it's for sure that they don't rip them off. They're also compared to bands like Filter and Gravity Kills, and that's just wrong, seeing as those two bands combined don't have near as much talent as SW. What's also a shame is that Wither Blister Burn + Peel and Darkest Days are priced so low and collecting dust in record stores. People need to open their eyes to one of the best bands the music industry has to offer.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Sophomore Album, April 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Wither Blister Burn & Peel (Audio CD)

"Wither Blister Burn & Peel," words taken from track #6 ("Falls Apart"), is a great sophomore album. I bought this CD mainly because of the two hits, "Shame" (#2) and "What Do I Have To Do?" (#3), but I quickly grew attached to the others, namely "Sleep" (#9), a slow haunting song, with a hoarse whispering chorus, about incest/rape. Most of the songs on here have a yin-yang quality, having calmer, smoother verses, then blasting out choruses with scratchy, yelling vocals. The topics are basically the same--about dysfunctional relationships/obsessions (as seen in #1: "I Don't Believe", plus just about every other track on here), isolation/depression (#4: "Why", #8: "Crushing Me", and #10: "Slipping Away")--which should appeal to more moodier listeners.

The lyrics are topnotch, and it's a good thing they're included in the booklet, because I've heard a few people get the lyrics to "Shame" mixed up, thinking Christopher Hall is saying "How can I *have sex* without you?", though he's really saying "How can I *exist* without you?"

All around: a great CD. Highly recommended if you like alt rock/industrial/techno/whatever you want to call it.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably THE most emotionally fueled album ever, October 25, 2004

By 

Jova Mereel "Jova" (Earth, Milky Way Galaxy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wither Blister Burn & Peel (Audio CD)

I'm going to start this off by stating that this album, along with all of SW's work, is not for everyone. I've read many mixed opinions about SW all over the net, and I believe that SW is one of those bands that you either love or hate. SW's music is very dark, and tends to focus on the negative things in life. Christopher Hall said it perfectly once: "There's two types of people. There's the kind of people that have music spoon-fed to them over the radio and through Mtv and then there's the type of people who actively seek out interesting music that means something to them. I think those people have found us."

Wither, Blister, Burn and Peel, in my opinion, is one of the best albums of all time in a lot of ways. First of all, it is VERY moving. You can feel the agony in Christopher Hall's voice as he sings about things like depression, isolation, loss and anger. One of my only complaints is that the lyrics do seem a bit amatuer in spots, but I also think that this adds a bit of realism to the music. If you read the lyrics to all of the songs on this album, you will instantly be able to tell what the song is about. Most of the time, I would say that lyrics so straight-forward are hard for people that haven't been in the same situation to relate to, but I think that just about everyone can relate to all of what Chris is saying on this album.

The other thing that I love about this album is the blend of synthesized instruments and live instruments. Most industrial music tends to have somewhat of a two-dimensional feel, since most of the tracks are all sequenced, or quantized. Take NIN for example... Although I love NIN, it doesn't move nearly as much as SW. Most industrial music wont make you bob your head unconsiously, it's just too perfect. But Stabbing Westward is one of the only bands that does a great job of blending techno-fied synthesizers with organic sounding guitars and drums and still has that "groove".

WBB&P is my favorite SW album, with Darkest Days in a close second. The last line in "Shame" is the most powerful thing I've heard in any modern music. The track "Why" is hauntingly beautiful... You can almost see the tears running down Chris' face when you listen to it. "What Do I Have to Do?" has a very catchy vocal melody, and is probably the one song on the album that anybody can relate to, no matter who you are. "So Wrong" takes a cool approach on industrial music by utilizing a tuplet-type groove instead of the straight-eighths feel that most electronic music thrives on, and also has a great heavy riff. "Sleep" has a very ambient sound to it, which sets the perfect mood for the topic of the song. The last track, "Slipping Away" does something I found very interesting. The track starts off with a garage-band type feel: no synths, no overdubs, just the band rocking out... Then the song becomes completely synth with no live instruments, and wraps up with the perfect blend of the two.

As I said, this album is not for everybody. If you like dark music, or music that is very moving and emotional, I believe you will like this CD. It is far from the testosterone-fueled nu-metal that is flooding today's radio, but I believe this album has a much more mature sound than most music on the charts today. Check this CD out. You just might find yourself having a new favorite band.