Biography
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Years Active
1995 – 1998 (3 years)
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Founded In
Seattle, King County, Washington, United States
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Members
- Brad Mowen
- G. Stuart Dahlquist
- Jamie Sykes
- Stephen O'Malley
Burning Witch was an American doom metal band from Seattle, Washington, active between 1995 and 1998. They were formed after the breakup of the death doom band Thorr's Hammer in 1995.
Most of the music of Burning Witch is very slow and heavy with the drums slowly plodding along with the bass and guitar playing minimalist riffs. Emphasis is usually put on spaces between notes, allowing the bass and guitar to resonate before proceeding to the next note. There are occasional bursts of feedback and noise from O'Malley, but for the most part the guitar and bass follow each other. One of the qualities of Burning Witch is Edgy 59's vocals which alter between a nasal and melodic singing voice to a brutal, tortured, and demented scream or shriek.
There are noticeable differences between the songs on Towers... and Rift. Canyon.Dreams with Towers… being more intense and aggressive and Rift.Canyon.Dreams being more morose and brooding.
The Crippled Lucifer compilation contains all but one song from their two LPs. The Goatsnake / Burning Witch split contains two songs, one from each of the LP recording sessions (and the one omitted from Crippled Lucifer), and the Asva / Burning Witch split contains the song "Rift. Canyon.Dreams".
A lot of terms have been used to describe Burning Witch's highly untraditional sound. Among these are "suicide doom", "transdimensional drone doom", "true blackened doom", and "molasses sludge". Stephen O'Malley has said these descriptions are "ridiculous", insisting Burning Witch is just a slow and heavy doom metal band with unique vocals. There is a natural progression in the sound of Burning Witch to the pair's later project Sunn O))), especially on Black One. Comparisons can also be made to O'Malley's later project Khanate.
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