{"id":50056,"date":"2016-06-15T13:00:14","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T18:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.toiletovhell.com\/?p=50056"},"modified":"2016-06-15T13:14:46","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T18:14:46","slug":"the-porcelain-throne-witchfinder-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/the-porcelain-throne-witchfinder-general\/","title":{"rendered":"The Porcelain Throne: Witchfinder General"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bringing Doom to the Throne of Porcelain Glory<\/em><\/p>\n

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When people look at the history of Doom Metal, the timeline starts with Black<\/strong> Sabbath<\/strong> (duh) and leaps ahead a few years to the debuts of Trouble<\/strong>, Saint<\/strong> Vitus<\/strong>, Pentagram<\/strong> and Candlemass<\/strong>. However, there is one band\u00a0that often gets overlooked by the masses: Witchfinder General<\/strong>. Some of you have heard the band given lip service in the history of Doom Metal and NWOBHM, but I believe Witchfinder General\u00a0deserve more respect than is often given. They deserve to be raised high on their own Porcelain Throne.<\/p>\n

I first heard Witchfinder General when I came across their eponymous song\u00a0during a late night Doom research session. The song entranced me. The weight of the riff, the thundering of the drums and the high-pitched shrieks grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me violently until after three minutes and fifty-one seconds of pure aggression I was let go. To this day, it remains alongside “Gloves of Metal” as one of my favorite Heavy Metal songs of all time.<\/p>\n

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Named after the Vincent Price movie of the same name, Witchfinder General formed in Stourbridge, England during the fall of 1979. After a few months of practice the band played their first show on June 16th, 1980 at The Crown Tavern in Dudley, UK to a surprisingly decent sized crowd. After a handful of shows and a few line-up changes, the band was ready for the studio. In a single afternoon of recording the band had their first release,\u00a0Burning A Sinner\u00a07″,\u00a0<\/em>on wax, and in early 1981 it was released. What would follow was to be a handful\u00a0of more line-up changes and only \u00a0a small number\u00a0of releases (the focus for today) before the band initially called it quits in 1984. In 2006 the band reformed for a brief stint with a new lead singer and recorded\u00a0new material, but since then have remained dormant.\u00a0Though more infamously known and panned by critics at the time for their risqu\u00e9 album covers (which featured a topless Joanne Latham), Witchfinder General\u00a0is a musical force to be reckoned with and will go down in history as a seminal Doom Metal band.<\/p>\n

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Soviet Invasion 12 inch EP (1982)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Witchfinder General, now consisting of vocalist Zeeb Parkes, guitarist Phil Cope, Bassist Kevin “Toss” McCready and drummer Steve Kinsell, recorded Soviet Invasion<\/em>\u00a0in the winter of 1981 however, the EP\u00a0was not released until the summer of 1982. This EP consists of 3 songs; “Soviet Invasion”, “Rabies” and “R.I.P (live)”. “Soviet Invasion” is a\u00a0song that takes on the political strife of the cold war and fear of the atomic bomb. \u00a0It\u00a0starts with a subtle acoustic intro (a technique later used on Death Penalty)<\/em>\u00a0that gives way to a rock solid slab of Doom Metal. Throughout the song the acoustic guitar is shadowed in the background to create the haunting atmosphere needed for the lyrics. “Rabies” and “R.I.P” both highlight Phil Cope’s early riff structures and song-writing capabilities while also showing Zeeb Parkes’ lyrical beginnings.<\/p>\n