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Discography
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Formed in Seattle from the ashes of Thorr's Hammer by guitarists Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson, with Jamie Sykes on drums, Burning Witch would go on to produce some of the finest doom metal of the 90's. Greg Anderson left soon after the band's formation to form Goatsnake, and vocalist, Edgy 59 and bassist G. Stuart Dahlquist were added to round out the line-up.
With this line-up, the band recorded a raw, aggressive, incredibly stoned, 12” EP with Steve Albini, entitled Towers..., which, at the time, remained unreleased. The album featured very distinct, alternately screamed/sung vocals, and a sludgy guitar and bass sound. The band played slow, with as much emphasis on the space between the notes as on the notes themselves. Soon after the sessions with Steve Albini, Jamie Sykes left the band and was replaced by drummer, B.R.A.D. with whom they recorded another 12” EP in 1997, entitled Rift. Canyon. Dreams, which saw release on Merciless Records that year, and which, while not a terribly radical departure, featured a slightly more melodic, less aggressive take on their established doom metal sound. Around this time, they started shopping a cassette around to labels, one of which ended up in the hands of Chris Dodge, who owned a struggling hardcore label called Slap-a-Ham. Although he was initially unable to release the record due to financial troubles, along with an already-packed release schedule (not to mention that, at the time, releasing a record of eight minute sludge anthems was a pretty risky thing for a hardcore label to do), six months later (after playing the cassette so many times it broke), he contacted the band, and, though the band had decided to release their CD compilation, Crippled Lucifer, on Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson's own label, Southern Lord, they allowed him to release the b-side of the tape. And so, the Towers... 12” was given a formal release in 1998.
After the band's breakup in 1998, Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson formed Sunn o))) together, originally as a tribute band to Earth. Eventually, Sunn o))) started making waves with their own highly unique drone-doom sound, and interest in Burning Witch skyrocketed, leading to Southern Lord reissuing an expanded edition of Crippled Lucifer in January, 2008. It's a limited edition of 2,000 copies, and, of course, it's essential for any fan of doom metal that doesn't already have the original 12” EP's.
02/09/2008 23:31:18
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