Burning Witch - Crippled Lucifer (1998)^{Release ID: 9096}

Despite all my years of committed exploration into the metal genre, it still has a habit of surprising me quite regularly with releases that I've thus far overlooked but that very much demand to be heard. The 1998 compilation album "Crippled Lucifer" from Seattle's Burning Witch is one of the better examples of that concept that you're gonna find as it's a fucking pearler. Burning Witch were formed out of the ashes of death doom metal act Thorr's Hammer (whose 1996 "Dommedagsnatt" demo tape I'm a big fan of) & included the legendary Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O)))/ÄÄNIPÄÄ/Gravetemple/Khanate/Pentemple/Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine/Thorr's Hammer/House of Low Culture) on guitar & George Stuart Dahlquist (Asva/Sunn O)))/Goatsnake) on bass with Brad Mowen (Asva/Cryptic Slaughter/Lesbian/The Accüsed) & Jamie "Boggy" Sykes (Thorr's Hammer/Atavist) sharing the drumming duties on this release. The two 1998 E.P.'s that these individuals combined to create on this CD ("Rift.Canyon.Dreams" & "Towers") both offer a sound that's so cold & oppressive that it leaves virtually no hope left for humanity or existence in general.

The version of the release that I've explored kicks off with three of the four songs from the "Rift.Canyon.Dreams" E.P. which is probably the stronger of the two as far as I'm concerned, particularly because the first two tracks "Warning Signs" & "Stillborn" are utterly magnificent, virtually perfect examples of doom/sludge metal with hints at the band member's subsequent drone metal projects. The "Towers" E.P. is more solid than it is mind-blowing but it still contains an absolute beast of a song in "Tower Place" which I've also been forced to place in my Hall of Metal Glory, such is its immense weight & intensity. The production job could not have been better for this style of music with the thick & heavily down-tuned guitar tone sucking me in & slowly crushing me under its pure desolation & I'm often reminded of Melvins sludgier material. The vocals swap between a clean Electric Wizard style doom metal delivery & a savage & visceral hardcore one. I have a preference for the latter but I don't think this release would be what it is without the balance that's provided by having both.

Honestly, it was a big mistake to keep this CD at arm's length for so long as it's everything it's cracked up to be. The quality levels never dip below four-stars & there's a class in the execution that belies the pedigree of the artists in question. I fucking love this shit just quietly.

For fans of Thou, Cough & Sunn O))).

Stephen O'Malley and usual cohort Greg Anderson, have produced some of the most extreme doom metal known to man as well as founding one of the premier doom metal labels, Southern Lord and are probably most well known for being the driving force behind SunnO))). After their short-lived first project, Thorr's Hammer split and before loosening bowels with the aforementioned drone metal titans, these doom metal stalwarts were the integral members of seminal extreme doom outfit Burning Witch. The band also featured vocalist Edgemont Martin (aka Edgy 59) and bassist G. Stuart Dahlquist (aka G. Subharmonium) along with a couple of drummers (successively, not at the same time)!

I think it is pretty safe to say that seldom has doom metal been served up that is more extreme-sounding and gruelling an experience than Burning Witch. As if the titanic, world-destroying chords of O'Malley and Anderson weren't enough then the tortured and deranged shrieks of Edgy 59 are sure to push you over the edge. This is most definitely not comfortable doom metal, in whose all-encompassing embrace you can wallow and luxuriate - no, this is deliberately confrontational, difficult and just downright unpleasant-sounding in order to throw you off balance and make you feel ill at ease and feed your suspicions that something IS indeed rotten in Denmark. A track like Country Doctor is certainly only going to appeal to those who like their metal music to confront them with the distressing and difficult-to-love, although there are a couple of slightly more accessible and, at least relatively speaking, conventional tracks such as Sacred Premonitions acting like pieces of flotsam for the drowning listener to cling to. One aspect of almost all of O'Malley and Anderson's music that cannot be ignored is that it is written with an additional instrument in mind. That instrument is sheer, unadulterated volume. Throughout their careers their music is seemingly intended to be as much a physical sensation as an auditory one and can only really be fully appreciated within the context of extreme volume, which is another reason that they should be considered as genuinely inhabiting the most extreme end of the doom metal spectrum. Sure, high volume has played a part in metal for all of it's fifty year reign, but with these guys it isn't just an option, it is an integral part of their whole sound. 

Crippled Lucifer is actually available in a couple of versions, the original 1998 version being sub-titled Seven Psalms for Our Lord of Light, it is now available in an extended version which carries the sub-title 10 Psalms for Our Lord of Light. The original version contain seven of the eight tracks contained on the Rift.Canyon.Dreams and Towers EPs. The 2008 expanded version also contains the track Rift.Canyon.Dreams from a split release with Asva and Burning Witch's two tracks from their split with Goatsnake, which is pretty much the sum total of the band's recorded output and is the version I would recommend as the CD is a nice package altogether.

Whichever version you listen to, be sure that you are going to be subjected to a crushing, bleak-sounding, nihilistic version of doom metal, a million miles removed from Candlemass, My Dying Bride or Saint Vitus, that takes no prisoners, gives no quarter and, to be honest, couldn't even give a fuck if you like it or not. Be prepared.