Burning Witch

Exactly ten years after the original release of Burning Witch's only full-length album, Crippled Lucifer, comes this expanded two-disc edition from Southern Lord -- the label that was essentially founded by this greatly revered document of '90s crust-doom-sludge. Fact is, the initial version of Crippled Lucifer, released in 1998, was actually a compilation of seven tracks culled from two separate EPs, named Rift.Canyon.Dreams and Towers..., and so the primary goal of this two-disc reissue is to present them in their original sequence while adding a pair of rare tracks previously available only on long out of print split singles. In short, the 2008 edition represents a bona fide, near-career-summing Burning Witch anthology that successfully reinforces their lasting impact on the funeral doom/sludge underground -- the group's wider cult status having only been achieved some years after their breakup. A decade on, seminal creations like "Sacred Predictions," "Sea Hag," "Stillborn," and "Communion" still awe with their frightening commitment to unfathomable darkness; darkness emanating from Stephen O'Malley's decayed, severely detuned guitar thunder, Edgy 59's disturbing, alternately haunted or tormented, throat-destroying wails, and the terminally ill percussive pulse that deliberately pounds iron spikes into each song's freezing cold, Ninth Circle of Hell atmosphere. And as for the two resurrected bonus cuts on display: the bludgeoning, soundtrack-to-a-murder that is "The Bleeder" swerves into feedback-infused Southern sludge terrain (think Eyehategod, Cavity, etc.), while "Rift Canyon Dreams" (the song) harks back to the earlier project Thorr's Hammer, with its hopeless, primeval drones. Incidentally, fans familiar with that short-lived outfit will actually find Burning Witch far easier to stomach and, arguably, also far more enduring in terms of their subsequent influence upon the extreme doom underground. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia, All Music Guide