Which bands? The Witch Bands!

(Gross...)

I have had a hard time writing this article, and it is frustrating because I really enjoy these mixes and the overall idea of a “Witch list” for bands. I think what has made it hard is that I am not super interested in witches and magic, but just in the sweet music that come from bands sporting deviations of the word. Would it make it more interesting if this included the words wizards and warlocks? I don’t think so, although I do think the idea of a Warlock just sounds sweeter than a witch. It has war in its name, and overall just gives a much sweeter metal vibe. Both of those are pretty much just the male equivalent of witches, and fall under the same category. Today people may argue that due to the eruption of the wizard phenomenon known as Harry Potter. Overall though, they are the same, yet when we think of Witches, it is definitely a female persona that comes to most people’s mind I can guarantee.

This brings up an interesting point, and doing some research on witches I definitely saw some of the early misogynistic roots and oppression of women that was created through the witch hunts and demonization of witches by the prominent religions of the time. The demonization of witches came from persecution notably by Muslims and Christians during the medieval period. It can also be seen as an early form of misogyny being integrated into the culture at the time. While witches weren’t only seen as women, the female version is what became most popularized. Once again, according to the Wikipedia, “The Malleus Maleficarum, an infamous witch-hunting manual used by both Catholics and Protestants, outlines how to identify a witch, what makes a woman more likely than a man to be a witch, how to put a witch on trial, and how to punish a witch. The book defines a witch as evil and typically female.” This put a damper on a lot of religious and spiritual practices of indigenous folk where the female played an important role in their culture, and began to brand them as blasphemous or heresy. Witches later on gained a nasty reputation as being affiliated with Satan. It was from the dark lord that they received their abilities, and often a mark was emblemized on their bodies to signify the contract that they had made with Lucifer. The men of god at many points have been in a battle against Satan and his evil witch army, which led to the persecution and execution of thousands of individuals.

So as found on Wikipedia, there are three common classifications for witches:

• The "neighborhood witch" or "social witch": a witch who curses a neighbor following some conflict.
• The "magical" or "sorcerer" witch: a professional healer, sorcerer, seer or midwife, or a person who has through magic increased her fortune to the perceived detriment of a neighboring household; due to neighborly or community rivalries and the ambiguity between positive and negative magic, such individuals can become labeled as witches.
• The "supernatural" or "night" witch: portrayed in court narratives as a demon appearing in visions and dreams.

Reading through and learning more of what is means to be a witch, a common theme came up: Most witches are being labeled as being in a practice that contradicts the beliefs of the majority. For a majority of history, Witches in most cultures were looked at in a dark light. Each region of the world also seems to have their own version of a witch and all can be connected through similar traits and characteristics. Witches all were connected with the practice of some dark craft that usually ended up with a harmful effect to another. There is also the area of white magic in contrast, and it seems that it has been adopted by a lot of modern day witch covens. Early white magic was usually the practice of local religious leaders that were outlawed by invasive religion and cultures.

These days the idea of what a witch is can definitely be rooted in hippy paganistic ideals.  It was in the 1900’s that the idea of “white magic” was more so introduced to the masses. Before it had been present, and for the most part any sort of voodoo jive was branded as the practice of black arts. But let’s move past this magic business and look at these witch bands.

For the most part, these mixes are pretty heavy mixes. We can see a high proportion of doom layered throughout each mix, and if it is not doom, then it is mainly metal of some sort. That makes it easier to look at the non-metal bands of the list since they stand out in comparison. 

First there is Witches, a Japanese ska band. I do not really know much about these guys besides they are Japanese and ska, which always makes for a silly kind of combination. In fact, I really thought that the brand of ska they played died out in the 90’s, but well into the 00’s Witches was going strong and bringing us those summertime feel good ska tunes that we used to enjoy while wearing our plaid converse at a 9^th grade battle of the bands. Two Witches is probably my least favorite band on this list. They have put out a number of records during the 90’s in the gothic rock category. The witch label is definitely fitting and in line with what they sing about, and for myself definitely fit the image of what I would originally imagine a band with witch in their title to sound like. A bunch a nerdy kids who love vampires a little too much and listened to a lot of Sisters of Mercy and The Cure. 

 

The Wicked Witch is just kind of out there. The album I have from them is a collection of songs from the 70’s and they are a crazy jazz-prog fusion type band who doesn’t really make too much sense. The one thing they do is whatever they want, and I can definitely respect that. White Witch is a funny band. They are from the 70’s, Florida and wanted to write heavy, psychy, proggy music that had a happy feel that helped to spread “white magic” in comparison the more evil feel of Sabbath. They have some really cheesy songs, but they are fun and make me smile, so I keep them around. Finally, the fifth of the non-metal bands is my favorite and it is the band Witch, and not the American version but the 70’s Zambian band.  A forerunner of the Zamrock scene, these guys played music that incorporates prog rock, psych, funk, and some traditional African sounds. This song is from their third album “Lazy Bones” and it is the only one I have heard. While it does not blow the mind away in comparison to a lot of what was happening around the globe, it impresses because these guys were from fucking Zambia. The difficulty of being exposed to underground music, gaining access to recording equipment and putting out an album is way more of an impressive feat in a smaller African country than in the state of California. Here’s a little snippet from a review site that I feel is a very apt description:

"...inspirational psych/rock group blasting out of Zambia in 1975. A soul-shouting edge combines with hard driving punk/garage guitars, tons of wah-wah, mesmeric melodic constructs, heavy African rhythms and powering blues testifying that sounds like a more militant/low-down take on South American psych."

So the rest of these bands are heavy in some form of the word. I think there is just something about witches that inspire that in bands. Overall it makes sense. Most metal bands aren’t really about the Christian imagery, and witches are an easy symbol to attach to one’s band that immediately lets your audience know where you stand. The witch trials themselves produce some pretty metal imagery, which is captured by Witchsorrow’s song “The Trial of Elizabeth Clarke”.  Another reason that could have led to so many witch metal bands is that the witch has been a persecuted figure throughout history for thinking differently and acting in a way not in line with the popular belief, and metal music tends to attract those who have been picked on, persecuted in some way or casted out by society. 

Looking through the list it seems that we have some doom metal, heavy metal/proto-doom, thrash metal, death metal, crust punk, stoner rock and some power metal. Out of these the doom bands are definitely my favorite. We have a second appearance in our collection by Witch Mountain who provides us with another heavy ripper. Witchfinder General is arguably one of the more important bands on this list. They are up there with Pentagram and Black Sabbath as the forefathers of modern day metal and doom, and have influenced legions of heaviness since the 70’s. You have Witchcraft who provides us with some retro-throwback proto-doom styled rock that just worships early pentagram. They could be said to be more of a tribute band to that era, and I appreciate the candor they have for wanting to play that style. 

So I am going to wrap up this week’s installment and provide you with a couple of mix’s with just one entry. I hope you enjoy the witches of the music world as much as I do, or at least some of them!

Download link: SFMTC Vol. 4a - Witch Which?

SFMTC Vol. 4a - Which Witch?

01. Witchery - "Fast as a Shark" - 'A Tribute to Accept'

02. Witchburn - "Heaven's Wake" - 'This is How We Slay Our Demons'

03. Hellwitch - "Mythologicalies" - 'Omnipotent Convocation'

04. White Witch Canyon - "Thirty Three and One Third" - 'White Witch Canyon'

05. Seven Witches - "Metal Daze (Manowar cover)" - 'Metal Covers'

06. White Witch - "Done Close Your Mind" - 'White Witch'

07. Witches Hammer - "Legions of the Undead" - 'The Stretching into Infinity'

08. Witch - "Old Trap Line" - 'Paralyzed'

09. Witchfinder General - "Death Penalty" - 'Death Penalty'

10. Witch Hunt - "By a Thread" - 'S/T'

11. Mountain Witch - "Throne of Blood" - 'Scythe and Dead Horse'

12. Icarus Witch - "Black Candles" - 'Draw Down the Moon'

13. The Wicked Witch - "X-rated" -  'Chaos 1978-86

14. Black Witchery - "Hellstorm of Evil Vengeance" - ' Upheaval of Satanic Might'

15. Stake-Off the Witch - "No One Cares About the Sun" - 'Medusa'

Download link: SFMTC Vol. 4b - Witches be Burning

SFMTC Vol. 4b - Witches be Burning!

01. Witches - "Noonmool" - 'Broomstick'

02. Burning Witch - "Communion" - 'Crippled Lucifer'

03. Burning Witches - "Burning Witches" - 'Demo'

04. Witchcraft - "Queen of Bees" - 'Firewood'

05. Wykked Wytch - "Seduced by Fear" - 'Nefret'

06. Witchfynde - "Stagefright" - 'Stagefright'

07. Witch - "Motherless Child" - 'Lazy Bones'

08. Angel Witch - "Gorgon" - 'Angel Witch'

09. Witch Mountain - "Wing of the Lord" - 'South of Salem'

10. Witchkiller - "Day of the Saxons" - 'Day of the Saxons'

11. Acid Witch - "Witchblood Cult" - 'Witchtanic Hallucinations'

12. Arkham Witch - "Legions of the Deep" - 'Arkham Witch'

13. Skeletonwitch - "Vengeance Will Be Mine" - 'Beyond the Permafrost'

14. Two Witches - "Bites and Bloody Kisses" - 'Bites'

15. Witchsorrow - "The Trial of Elizabeth Clarke" - 'Witchsorrow'

Women of DOOM!!!

If you didn’t guess, this entry is about the women of the Doom metal (and related) genre, and the impact that they have made. This was the idea that inspired  me to start doing my mixtapes, as it combines two things I love: women’s vocals and heavy doom-laden riffs. In this day of age, we are starting to see more metal (especially Doom metal) bands appear with female vocalists. The 90’s saw the gate start to open, and in the 2000’s it is becoming more and more embraced. You may say, “Foxy, there have been girls in metal since the 70’s, what do you have to say about that!”. I would say you are correct sir/madam, and it was rare in comparison to the high volume of males, a lot of the times under appreciated, or a number of other reasons. With Female front Doom today, sometimes people call it a gimmick, and brush it aside and discount the music because of this. I for one embrace the increase of the female presence on the mic, but this was not always the case.

The Idea that women are supposed to be observer's is definitely an attitude that is prominent in many musical scenes. I think that is why I feel it is important to do this mix. Women have always been the underdog in metal music ever since the first note on “Black Sabbath” was strummed by Mr. Iommi. It has usually pervaded a machismo attitude, portrayed women as objects, and felt that a female band couldn’t compete with the males. This was something I subscribed to for a long time until the fortunate day when I heard Acid King, and my eyes were opened to many bands I had chosen to overlook.

Now female Doom metal did not start with Acid King, and I am even unsure of how much of an impact they had on the scene in general, I can only speak for myself.  If you want to start from the beginning, you may want to check out Mythic, the first all female doom/death metal band to commit their music to wax. Many artists of today can claim Mythic to be their starting point and inspiration. Mythic helped to open the door for women in an underground scene in an already non-traditional music genre. Following shortly after Mythic, Mystic Charm and 13 are two female fronted bands that came along to help pave the way. These groups along with other female underground groups, such as L7, Rude Girl, and Bikini Kill, helped to open up musical outlets for females in male-dominated genres.  These days it is a lot more common to see women taking part in metal. The symphonic and power metal scene in Europe has seen a massive increase of women involvement since Nightwish jumped onto the scene years back. Unfortunately most of what is commercialized as female metal is not very good. It makes me sad to see that Kittie, Evanescence, Lacuna Coil and Otep are the bands young females are being exposed to, and at least they are being represented and hopefully can dig a little bit deeper than just the crap that is being fed to them. My hope is that males and females alike are not turned away by this grouping of bands, fortunately for a lot of us, there was Acid King…

(Lori S of Acid King rockin' it out)

Acid King is a band based out of San Francisco which features the talented Lori S. on vocals and guitar. The band has been filled out by numerous bassists and their other consistent member Joey, on drums. Lori though is the focal point, the face and the voice of this band. Her vocal style has improved consistently over each album, helping to create heavy music with a psychedelic atmosphere. All of their albums are spectacular, and it is III that see’s all of the elements blend in perfect cohesion to take you on trip through time. Lori’s vocals have gone from gruffer to a smoother, more hypnotic style that is accented by the perfect amount of reverb. Acid King plays pretty minimalistic riffs, and it is the vocals that really tie them together to help the songs flow effortlessly. The song “Into the Ground” perfectly blends the heavy aspects of the music with a mellow touch of psychedelia, and if this catches your ear I highly recommend their entire catalog. After I finally embraced the woman vocalist in metal, I discovered that women’s vocals can have just as much variety as males. There are those with a clean, traditional styled singing (a la Ronny James Dio), there are the guttural-death growls (a la Floridian death metal), the chaotic noise banshee screech (a la Scott Kelly-Crust Punk), and the 70’s proto metal beer slamming vocals (a la Bobby Liebling).

(Alia O'brien of B.C.)

When people think of metal bands with traditionally trained vocals, I hope they think of Ronnie James Dio. He brought the classically trained vocal style to hard rock and metal, and while being sung over the heavy riffs of Sabbath and Rainbow, we were shown how well the two blended.  In our current day and age I hope people start to think of bands like Blood Ceremony (Alia O’Brien), Witch Mountain (Uta Plotkin) and Jex Hoth, formerly Totem (Jex Hoth). The pretty voices, accompanied by pretty faces, have laid some pretty awesome vocals over some doom-laden tunes. I would say the common influence amongst all of these is the heavy Pentagram styled riffs and the Ronnie James inspired vocals. Don’t get me wrong, just because they have nice clean accessible vocals does not mean that the music isn’t balls-to-the-ass Doom. Blood Ceremony rocks out in their own unique blend of the doom forerunners, 70’s styled organ and some pagan flute riffage. Ms. O’Brien isn’t only a lovely vocalist but also has the talent to hang with Ian Anderson in a flute battle.

(Uta Plotkin belting it out)

 Witch Mountain, a local Portland group, impresses with Uta’s powerful voice which brings a soulful touch to the music ala Janis Joplin or Sandy Denny. The group plays a proto-doom style which can throw you right back into the 70’s to a time when metal still seemed dangerous. Jex Hoth does well to mix the early doom influence, proto metal and the psychedelia of the 60’s. An incredibly beautiful women wielding an Axe who belts out medieval lyrics is a combination of sexy, and awesome.  

(The stunning Jex Hoth)

I was surprised by the sheer brutality of a few of these bands vocalists, and they are the ones that fall into the guttural-monster growl. A voice so frightening, deep and primal that it makes me almost shit my pants is hard to come by and the following easily fall into this category. Thorr’s Hammer is a good place to start. Singer Runhild Gammelsaeter teamed up with doom/drone connoisseur Greg Anderson to release one of the defining EP’s  of the 90’s, “ Doomedagsnatt” , and showed the metal community that girls can play just as hard, and sing as brutal as a male.

(The Banshee Runhild)

Baba Yaga/Grey then took off where Runhild had left the gate open with just that single EP. Baba Yaga, an all-female brutal doom band, released just a demo back in 1998 and seemingly disappeared from the Seattle metal scene. Until in the 2000’s when the group reunited under the name of Grey, and after a couple of lineup changes they had a solid group of metal musicians ready to release some terrifying extreme doom. There is a difference between Runhild, and Grey singer, Suzanne Haynes. Runhild’s vocals can easily be confused for a male or could be seen as non-gendered, while Haynes has some eerily strange femininity to them. When she sings/yells/growls, she becomes an ancient Gypsy-Witch-like sorceress who has discovered someone raiding her lair that is filled with dead babies who were killed by being stuffed full of kittens, and then stabbed multiple times to make sure the kittens died as well, and is so infuriated by the trespassers that she blasts out their souls with her devastating Banshee call. Hopefully that describes the power and awesomeness in this woman’s vocals (if that doesn’t sound awesome to you, then I don’t know what to say).

(The girls from Grey looking witchy)

(Laura Pleasants of Kylesa)

Noise, crust punk, and grind have all had a huge influence in the doom and metal scenes in general. You combine those influences with some NOLA attitude, and sludge is the product that is emitted. A genre that has been championed by pioneers Crowbar, Grief and Eyehategod goes hand in hand with the doom and stoner metal of the day. That influence has not been overlooked by many of the women who have taken on the challenge of inserting themselves into this scene. 13 could be seen as the backbone of female fronted sludge. They never released a full length album, but had numerous demos and splits with their counterparts of the time, that they made an impact of the general metal scene at the time enough to take notice. They were said to have wanted to play music “that physically hurts you when you hear it”!

(Yoshiko Ohara)

Kylesa, Bloody Panda, Dark Castle and Salome could be seen as some of the successors in our modern time. You can definitely hear the Scott Kelly/Neurosis influence in a lot of the music and vocals for these bands, which is definitely a good thing. Kylesa grew out of Georgia’s staple crusty sludge act Damad, and in 2001 with the addition of guitarist and front woman, Laura Pleasants, the band officially transitioned into Kylesa. While the vocal duties are shared between three of the members in the group, Pleasants voice ranges between a psychedelic atmospheric tone to an emotional and soulful yell, bringing an eclectic mix to the trio of singers. Bloody Panda is based out of New York, and is fronted by Japanese visual artist, Yoshiko Ohara, and play a mixture of doom metal and droning Sunn 0))) influenced atmospheric music. The biggest surprise is that such a gnarly voice could come out of such a tiny Japanese woman, but it’s a good lesson in not judging a book by its cover.

(Stevie.. not Knix)

Dark Castle is a phenomenal duo from Florida that plays some heavy sludgy doom. Stevie Floyd is their lovely singer/guitarist who lends herself to the keys as well to help create some ethereal sounds. Definitely for fans of drone bands such as Sunn 0))), and combines that with a Noisey-Neurosis like sludginess.
 Salome was a sludge band from Virginia that plays music reminiscent of Mastodon and Kylesa. Unfortunately they broke up recently, as Vocalist Katherine "Kat" Katz returned to Agoraphobic Nosebleed (a seminal noise grind band who she also does vocals for). Salome put out a couple of phenomenal albums that I highly recommend. There is something about the southern states produces great sludge music. Somewhere it is stated that it’s due to a bunch of metal heads grew up listening to the Allman brothers, and this is what came of it and that does not sound too far off.

(Kat crooning)

As you can see, women are starting to make their mark in the metal scene and becoming a more present force. Today we have zines, websites, and labels dedicated to spreading and increasing the involvement of women in metal, punk, hardcore, and indie. The idea of a woman being a “coatrack” is being held on by some meatheads out there, and it is nice to see it slowly fading away. It is up to us to keep that progression moving, and the best way is to encourage and have women be active in our scenes and local communities.  I recommend all the bands talked about so far in this post, and recommend the rest that are on this mix tape. Some that are not represented in either area that don’t quite fall into the Doom category that are great are Grayceon, Black Mountain, Khlyst, and Agoraphobic nosebleed.

SFMTC Vol 1 - Women of Doom

Mixtape Tracklist
1.  Black Math Horseman - "Tyrant" - 'Wyllt' lp
2. Acid King - "Into the Ground" - 'III' lp
3. Baba Yaga - "Stoner Bitch" - 'Taker of Souls' demo
4. Dark Castle - "Heavy Eyes" - 'Surrender to all Life' lp
5. Blood Ceremony - "The Great God Pan" - 'Living with the Ancients' lp
6. Grey - "Taker of Souls" - 'Sister of the Wyrd' lp
7. Mourn - "Dreamless Sleep" - 'Mourn' lp
8. Bloody Panda - "Pusher" - 'Summon' lp
9. Witch Mountain - "South Sugar" - 'South of Salem' lp
10. Mystic Charm - "Crushed Virginity" - 'Shadows of the Underworld' lp
11. Serpentcult - "New World Order" - 'Weight of Light' lp
12. Kylesa - "Running Red" - 'Static Tensions' lp
13. Jex Thoth - "When the Raven Calls" - 'Jex Thoth' lp
14. Thorr's Hammer - "Troll" - 'Doomedagsnatt' ep
15. Witchburn - "Call to Arms" - 'This is How We Slay Our Demons' lp
16. Salome - "Terminal" - 'Terminal' lp