Witchfinder General

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Witchfinder General
Witchfinder General logo.jpg
General information
origin Stourbridge , England
Genre (s) Doom Metal , New Wave of British Heavy Metal
founding 1979, 2006
resolution 1984
Website www.witchfindergeneral.net
Current occupation
Phil "Woolfy Trope" Cope
Gary "Gaz" Martin
Rod "Corks" "Hawk Eye" Hawkes
Dermot "Derm the Germ" Redmond
former members
Electric bass
 Kevin "Toss" McCready († 2008)
Drums
 Graham Ditchfield
Drums
 Steve "Kid Nimble" "Kid Rimple" Kinsell
singing
 Zeeb Parkes
Electric bass
 Johnny Fisher

Witchfinder General is an English Doom and New Wave of British Heavy Metal band from Stourbridge that was founded in 1979, disbanded in 1984 and has been active again since 2006.

history

Rod Hawkes, Phil Cope and Robert Hickmann, who would later choose the name for the band, had known each other since late 1974, as they attended the same school together. With Hickmann on the other electric guitar and drummer Dave Potter, who later joined Cloven Hoof , they played a few gigs before breaking up as a group and devoting themselves to other projects. The band was called Electrode, with Zeeb Parkes as a roadie . Witchfinder General was founded in the late 1970s when singer Zeeb Parkes and guitarist Phil Cope decided to write songs together. Both of them had previously gained experience in other bands in the West Midlands . The name Zeeb Parks was just a pseudonym , a nickname given by Cope. At the time, Parkes often wore black and white striped rugby shirts that reminded Cope of a zebra in the flickering orange disco light . The term was eventually shortened to "Zeeb". By late 1978, both of them had written enough songs to begin their first appearances in early 1979. Various people worked on drums and bass, including Copes' cousin as the drummer. The band was only able to increase its popularity to a limited extent.

At the end of 1979 the official founding of Witchfinder General took place. The group took its name from the horror film Der Hexenjäger (original title: Witchfinder General ) from 1968. In December 1980, the release of a single called Invisible Hate on the label WFG was announced, but this never happened. At Christmas 1980 the then bassist Johnny Fisher left the line-up and was replaced in 1981 by Kevin "Toss" McCready. Then the group reached a record deal with Heavy Metal Records in 1981 . The band then began recording the first single for the then newly founded label. During the recordings four to five recordings were made, of which Satan's Children and Burning a Sinner made it onto the single. In retrospect, Zeeb Parkes was critical of the recordings because the band was too inexperienced in the studio and the bass was badly distorted. The recordings for this had taken place in the Ginger Studios in Aldridge . The single was released in September of the same year. Further local appearances followed to promote the sound carrier. The song Rabies , which was also created during the recording, was used for the heavy metal records sampler Heavy Metal Heroes . In the second half of 1982 the EP Soviet Invasion followed, on which Rabies and a live version of the song RIP are again included in addition to the song of the same name . Here, too, Parkes was not satisfied with the admission result, although he found it better than that of Burning a Sinner . The recordings for this took place again in the Ginger Studios at the end of 1981. Steve "Kid Rimple" Kinsell was represented as the new drummer. At RIP , the group played the song as they would play it live. The audience noises were added later as a soundtrack. This method was chosen because the band ran out of time to make a proper studio recording.

The sound carrier was released a few months after the debut album had already been recorded. The line-up of drums and bass had meanwhile changed again. When recording the debut album, Graham Ditchfield was involved as a drummer. The recording took place over a period of three days in May 1982 with Saxon producer Pete Hinton at Metro Studios in Mansbury . Since no suitable bass player had been found by this time, Cope also took over the bass and was performed under the pseudonym "Woolfy Trope". For the first time, Zeeb was really satisfied with the recording quality. The album was released in 1982 under the name Death Penalty , with a controversial cover that was banned. It shows a posed sacrificial ritual of a scantily clad woman, embodied by the model Joanne Latham , whose throat is cut. The band members appear in the scene as witch hunters, mercenaries, monks and confessors "dressed in proper style". The cover was one of the first to be indexed in Germany by the Federal Inspectorate for Media Harmful to Young People. It is believed that the album cover was designed to be provocative on purpose, as indicated by the advertising slogan "Get this album before it's banned." The album was only sold reasonably well.

In 1982 no performances were held. However, the group did not release any new records and was only heard with the old, but previously unreleased, song Free Country on Heavy Metal Heroes Volume II . After the recordings, Rod "Corks" "Hawk Eye" Hawkes joined the band as bassist. The drummer Ditchfield left the band, but was still to be heard on later recordings as a guest drummer. In March 1983 the band recorded the second album Friends of Hell within two weeks at Horizon Studios in Coventry with producer Robin George . The album was released that same year, but was less successful than its predecessor. The intention to increase the provocation achieved on the first album by several naked girls on the cover had no effect.

The release was followed by a tour in which Derm "Derm the Germ" Redmond was involved as a drummer. In the same year, the single Music followed with the song Last Chance as B-side . In 1984 the band wrote a new album, but it could not be completed as the band disbanded in the summer of the same year. Until then, the band could never play outside of England.

In 1990 the song Witchfinder General could be heard on the sampler New Wave of British Heavy Metal '79 Revisited by Lars Ulrich . In 2006, Nuclear War Now! Productions Live '83 , which consists of old live recordings. When the CD version was first pressed, there were disruptions in the playback speed of individual tracks. In the same year the band came together again and released the album Resurrected in 2008 . In addition to the new singer Gary "Gaz" Martin, the band consists of the bassist Hawkes, the guitarist Cope and the drummer Redmond. In the meantime, the compilation Buried Amongst the Ruins was released in 2007 , which consists of the song material from Burning a Sinner and Soviet Invasion as well as four live songs from 1981.

style

Malc Macmillan noted in The NWOBHM Encyclopedia that the band received little attention when they were active and only became more significant in retrospect. Witchfinder General had been influenced by another regional band called Earth (the later Black Sabbath ). The band has a preference for horror films, which is evident from the band name. They rely on gothic symbolism and the texts are macabre. On Burning a Sinner one can hear similarities to Pentagram and Saint Vitus . On the song of the same name from the EP Soviet Invasion , they moved away from the horror film theme. The lyrics on Death Penalty are grotesque. The cover suggests that the songs deal with dark topics. However, this is not the case with most of the songs. They are usually too cheerful to be considered pure Doom Metal. The band is a doom metal band comparable to Desolation Angels , Pagan Altar , Demon and Angel Witch . Friends of Hell is similar to the debut album, only that the band is now a little more variable. The cover depicts a group of women in a cemetery who would be threatened by the band members. The subject matter of the texts would now deviate from the path of occultism . In addition, they are more dedicated to the traditional New Wave of British Heavy Metal, so that occasionally similarities to bands like Satan , Kraken and Blitzkrieg can be heard. However, the album is even less of a Doom Metal album than its predecessor.

Matthias Mader stated in the book NWoBHM New Wave of British Heavy Metal The glory Days that the band sounds similar to Black Sabbath in the Ozzy Osbourne era. Scott Weinrich often cites the band as one of his greatest influences. Also The International Encyclopedia of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal and Neil Jeffries in Kerrang! The Direktory of Heavy Metal noticed a sound similar to Black Sabbath. Daniel Bukszan found in The Encyclöpedia öf Heavy Metal that the band plays 100 percent pure Doom Metal and that the two albums are classics of the genre. The group was a great influence for later bands in the genre, whereas they received little attention in their time when they were active. Allmusic's Eduardo Rivadavia noted that Witchfinder General was hardly important to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, but was a very important early influence for Doom Metal bands. He too heard a strong Black Sabbath influence. In an interview on witchfindergeneral.net , Cope named Black Sabbath and Tony Iommi as influences. The lyrics of the band were all written by Zeeb Parkes.

Even Martin Popoff wrote in The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 2: The Eighties the band played a pioneering role in Doom Metal. He compared the music on Death Penalty to the early works of Black Sabbath. In addition, parallels to Diamond Head can also be heard. Friends of Hell sounds like a mixture of the self-titled album by Black Sabbath as well as Master of Reality and Mob Rules . The music sounds depressing like the previous one, with vocals reminiscent of the early Ozzy Osbourne. In addition to Trouble and later Cathedral , Witchfinder General is the only band that comes close to the early Black Sabbath.

Garry Sharpe-Young noted in AZ of Doom, Gothic & Stoner Metal that the band was often rejected by the reviewers of the time because the similarities to Black Sabbath at the time were too strong. Markus Müller from Rock Hard also assigned the style to Doom Metal in his review of Soviet Invasion . Witchfinder General has been a huge influence on many bands. For example, on a sheet of text that was enclosed with the US release of their debut album, Saint Vitus would have named Witchfinder General as a model. The group's most Doom Metal-heavy material can be heard on the EP. Jens Schmiedeberg from Metal Hammer stated about the song of the same name on Music that it was dark, but that it did not do without melodiousness. The song on the B-side, Last Chance , was "dark and cumbersome, but not without the necessary drive and Black Sabbath bonds". An issue later, Schmiedeberg reviewed Friends of Hell and also indicated a similarity to the early Black Sabbath. Of the songs on the album, only music is slightly commercial. The album is characterized by frequent changes in tempo . Even Reverend Bizarre are Witchfinder General as influence.

Reto Wehrli writes in his book Verteufelter Heavy Metal about the scandals of modern music history: “Musically, the four-man limited himself to plagiarizing his declared role model Black Sabbath (including the Ozzy-Osbourne lamentation in the singing), which was also reflected in satanic terms , but often found only stupid-looking texts. […] Despite the formal weaknesses, years later this material exerted a certain influence on the newly burgeoning style of Doom Metal. "

Discography

Albums

  • 1982: Death Penalty (Heavy Metal Records)
  • 1983: Friends of Hell (Heavy Metal Records)
  • 2008: Resurrected (Buried by Time and Dust Records)

Live albums and compilations

  • 2006: Live '83 (Live album, Nuclear War Now! Productions )
  • 2007: Buried Amongst the Ruins (compilation, Nuclear War Now! Productions)
  • 2010: Death Penalty / Friends of Hell (Box-Set, Buried by Time and Dust Records)

Singles and EPs

  • 1981: Burning a Sinner (Single, Heavy Metal Records)
  • 1982: Soviet Invasion (EP, Heavy Metal Records)
  • 1983: Music (Single, Heavy Metal Records)

Sampler contributions

  • 1981: Rabies on Heavy Metal Heroes (Heavy Metal Records)
  • 1982: Free Country on Heavy Metal Heroes Volume II (Heavy Metal Records)
  • 1985: Friends of Hell on Metal Inferno (Castle Communications)
  • 1986: Friends of Hell on Metal Killers Kollection II (Castle Communications)
  • 1990: Witchfinder General on New Wave of British Heavy Metal '79 Revisited (Phonogram)
  • 1991: Music on NWOBHM (Heavy Metal)
  • 1995: Music on Give 'Em Hell (Nectar Masters)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liam: PHIL COPE INTERVIEW. (No longer available online.) Witchfindergeneral.net, archived from the original on September 11, 2015 ; accessed on February 24, 2015 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Biography. (No longer available online.) Rockdetector.com, archived from the original on February 26, 2015 ; Retrieved February 25, 2015 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Malc Macmillan: The NWOBHM Encyclopedia . IP Verlag Jeske / Mader GbR, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-931624-16-3 , p. 728 ff .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Matthias Mader, Otger Jeske, Manfred Kerschke: NWoBHM New Wave of British Heavy Metal The glory Days . Iron Pages, Berlin 1995, p. 72 ff .
  5. ↑ Colin Larkin (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of Popular Music . 3. Edition. Volume 8 Wilde, Kim - ZZ Top. Macmillan, London 1998, ISBN 0-333-74134-X , Witchfinder General, pp. 5896 .
  6. ↑ a b c d Reto Wehrli: Demon Heavy Metal . Scandals and Censorship in Modern Music History. extended new edition edition. Telos Verlag Dr. Roland Seim MA - Verlag für Kulturwissenschaft, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-933060-15-X , Witchfinder General, p. 596 ff .
  7. ↑ a b Tony Jasper, Derek Oliver: The International Encyclopedia of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal . Facts on File Inc., New York 1983, ISBN 0-8160-1100-1 , pp. 393 .
  8. ^ Garry Sharpe-Young , Horst Odermatt & Friends: The Ultimate Hard Rock Guide Vol I - Europe . Bang Your Head Enterprises Ltd, 1997, p. 632 .
  9. ↑ Insulter: Witchfinder General "Live '83" Double LP Out Now. Nuclear War Now! Productions , accessed February 25, 2015 .
  10. ↑ a b Daniel Bukszan: The Encyclöpedia öf Heavy Metal . Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2012, ISBN 978-1-4027-9230-4 , pp. 381 .
  11. ^ Witchfinder General - Resurrected. Discogs , accessed February 25, 2015 .
  12. ↑ Neil Jeffries: Kerrang! The Directory of Heavy Metal . Virgin Books, London 1993, ISBN 0-86369-761-5 , pp. 244 .
  13. ↑ Eduardo Rivadavia: Witchfinder General. Allmusic , accessed February 21, 2015 .
  14. ↑ Martin Popoff : The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 2: The Eighties . Collectors Guide Ltd, Burlington, Ontario, Canada 2005, ISBN 978-1-894959-31-5 , pp. 416 f .
  15. ^ Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Gothic & Stoner Metal . Cherry Red Books, London 2003, ISBN 1-901447-14-6 , pp. 446 .
  16. ^ Markus Müller: Witchfinder General . Soviet invasion. In: Rock Hard . No. 102 , November 1995, pp. 126 .
  17. ↑ Jens Schmiedeberg: Witchfinder General . Music. In: Metal Hammer . January 1984, p. 36 .
  18. ↑ Jens Schmiedeberg: Witchfinder General . Friends of Hell. In: Metal Hammer . February 1984, p. 52 .
  19. ^ History. users.utu.fi, accessed February 25, 2015 .