Search - Burning Witch :: Crippled Lucifer

BURNING WITCH INFORMATION

Stephen F O'Malley | New York, NY United States | 12/23/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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)"

Lovely childhood memories

Nathan W. Walker | delray beach, fl United States | 08/24/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Drug Induced Doom Metal

curlywombat | Pearl River, NY United States | 07/30/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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)))."