Witchfinder General - Death Penalty (1982)^{Release ID: 6537}

Ah yes Witchfinder General, and Death Penatly. 

The best way I can describe this album is that it is Black Sabbath meets NWOBHM (particularly I get strong Angel Witch Vibes). I think it's a fun and very cool album, and "Free Country" is of course an underground anthem of sorts. At least the metal clubs around my area (Detroit) play it between sets over the PA all the time. That being said. It can also drag in places, and it's fairly generic sounding. I am a bit mesmerized by it's status as a cornerstone of the genre.

I think it works as a great entry point, but there is going to come a time where you want to go either faster and gravitate to full on NWOBHM and Thrash, or you're going want to go slower and thicker like myself. This album is the fork in that road, and once you go down either path it starts to fall short. I'm never upset to hear it, but I'm never excited to hear it either. 

I had high hopes for this record.  I had only heard good things about Witchfinder General and had often wondered if they deserved their cult underground status in doom metal circles.  Truth is (to my ears at least), this is a NWOBHM record done by a band who also happened to like listening to Black Sabbath.  I cannot see that this was intentionally recorded to be anything remotely doom metal related, I would go so far as to say that it just got into the club via the fire escape or the open window in the gents toilet as the doormen wouldn't let it in the club door and somehow it got on the main bill.

In all honesty, I do not even think that this even makes the grade as a half decent NWOBHM record.  They are most certainly not a Diamond Head by any means and there are aspects to the playing that are quite amateurish, albeit of course this was their debut record.  I understand that this was the "peak" of their career as well which is a real burning irony that will never be lost on me.  It could be that my disillusionment with The Guardians clan is still too acute for me to tolerate much influence from it in my doom metal (especially when that influence is so obvious as it is here) but this marriage of the two elements just does not sit right with me I am afraid.  

One of the greatest albums of the NWOBHM era and a genuine early doom classic, the slightly quirky twist on the Sabbath template sets it apart from other albums from the time. I've been giving this album regular plays for nearly forty years now and will never tire of it. Unfortunately the band failed to live up to that promise with disappointing follow up Friends of Hell signalling the start of a lengthy period of hibernation. Yet saying that, how many mediocre outfits would sell their souls for even one album this good?