Hot damn, where have you been all my life Burning Witch! Apparently, as Aaron Turner documents in his liner notes contribution for this two disc CD set (the special edition includes a download card to grab the band's demo and live songs while the Japanese version is a mammoth three CD set) entitled Crippled Lucifer, Burning Witch has "traveled the roads of the outer dark" waiting for me to discover them. Having only previously been exposed to the band through their split with Goatsnake, I usually avoided them due to their over the top vocal style of Edgy59 (despite the participation of member Stephen O'Malley, future Sunn0))), Khanate, Lotus Eaters and a whole host of other groups and experimentations on guitar) which is my mistake that has been corrected with my acquisition of this collection. In truth, Crippled Lucifer - a reissue of a collection of the same name that compiles the Burning Witch albums Towers and Rift.Canyon.Dreams as well as other tracks - is an intense experience that does touch on some of the darkest music and themes that musicians attempt to tackle; at times the experience is harrowing while at others it is downright terrifying.
Burning Witch's Crippled Lucifer collection emphatically announces its beginning with the hyper aggressive track, "Sacred Predictions," originally found on Towers which also serves as the name of the first disc, which traces a path of seemingly murderous intent an apocalyptic vision, at least that is how the vocal arrangements sound when added to the plodding instrumentation. "Country Doctor" has a similarly aggressive timbre that sends chills shooting down one's spine with every intoning vocal and bombastic downbeat. The piercing sounds signaling "Tower Place" and its nasty demeanor. This song sounds hell bent on blasting through listeners rather than making something for them to listen to in the quiet of their homes. The transition from this to "Sea Hag" is quite excellent and just about perfectly sets up that song with this ominous sound of ire that just explodes with little or no warning (even though by listening you feel something is coming) giving a listeners the sense of suspense. "The Bleeder", the last song on the Towers disc of this Crippled Lucifer collection, is one of the two songs found on the band's split record with Goatsnake that was available via Hydra Head Records.
As "Warning Signs" comes crashing through the speakers, the opening chords hint a the overarching bleak sound that Burning Witch places throughout Rift.Canyon.Dreams. There are times in the song where the listening experience feels as though it will drag listeners down into some bizarre catatonic state due to its slow tempo and full recording sound. The gloomy mood of "Stillborn" is extremely pervasive, and the fuzz-drenched drones invade every nook and cranny of the aural soundscape with only the vocals to offer respite (and they are disturbingly shrill and add an even more uneasy feeling to the song). "History of Hell (Crippled Lucifer)" actually contains a certain noticeable groove albeit in a comatose inducing tempo that gives the track a slightly different feel than anything else on the album (i.e. does not seem to be as much of a sonic assault on people's senses) while at the same time retains the same tones and fluidity that the rest of the record has; the time and tempo change at about the midpoint is awesome and shaking at the same time as it is completely unexpected. The slow crawl of "Communion" (the second song taken from their split with Goatsnake) is crushing and intense while still maintaining a bit of a brooding mood. "Rift.Canyon.Dreams" (actually comes from the band's split with Asva) closes the album, and whole collection, with a sadistic thirteen plus minutes of aural torture that one cannot help but listen to, much the same as a horrific car accident with rubbernecking drivers passing.
The packaging for this collection is ultimately exquisite: a double digi-pack that includes an expansive forty page booklet that is more of an artistic statement that sets a mood rather than the usual lyrics/ liner notes tome that can come with these types of releases, and of which I am rather fond of normally. The booklet is excellent to view, and the brief liner notes, provided by Aaron Turner (of Isis, Old Man Gloom, Lotus Eaters, House of Low Culture, and head honcho of Hydra Head) and Chris Dodge (of Spazz and proprietor of Slap-A-Ham records); both men had previously released records by Burning Witch and in their own ways provided an interesting peak into the reality that Burning Witch inhabits.
Crippled Lucifer should be required for aficionados of the doom genre of heavy music, although in some people's view it is just that. The music that it captures is dark, challenging, and even at times otherworldly. It is a serious undertaking to sit and digest the contents over hours of time that leave you feeling violated, hungry and disturbed by someone else's music and emotion. "When I first heard Burning Witch I laughed" and then eight years later, I did not. (Read Aaron Turner's liner notes to understand this, it perfectly explains my experience with the band as well but in a slightly different way).
