Burned As Witches – 'Burned As Witches' Album Review

7 hours ago
3 min read

Tracklist:

Scapegoats
Hold Your Nerve
Pay The Ferry
Truth Comes Crawling
It Comes Before The Fall
Right In Front Of You
A Spartan Mass
To The Sky

You probably haven’t heard of Burned As Witches yet, but you will probably know who Burned As Witches actually is, Ash Drummer Rick McMurray. If you’ve ever had the privilege of seeing Ash live, you’ll know what a powerhouse of a drummer he is.

So, Ash without Tim Wheeler on vocals, nope, not even close. It turns out Rick loves a bit of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, so this is actually a rifftastic proper heavy metal album. If you like to headbang along to full on buzzing guitar rifts and enjoy a rhythm section trying to bludgeon you to death you might want to listen to this album.

The only slight downside is that Rick’s voice, while good, doesn’t quite land as well as Ozzy’s or Robert Plants. But then I don’t think he’s trying to. This is more like an attempt to make a sonic masterpiece than just a series of singles, to make an album that works as a whole.

The whole album could have been written and recorded in the 70’s but it’s not just a pastiche, its so much more than that, the guitars pummel your will to resist, the solos soar but the whole thing is just wonderfully heavy.

What is even more impressive is that Rick wrote, produced and played every note on the album himself, who knew he was such an accomplished guitarist. Tim Wheeler better watch out; he’s not the only axe-wielding hero in Ash!

There are hints of southern boogie rock at times, of an almost stoner rock influence but they are just hints, this is fundamentally a heavy metal album of the type that not many people make now. I do think Rick was born a few years too late. With his guitar playing skills, his ferocious drumming and his knack for a riff he should have been touring America in the early 70’s!

Sabbath were almost more droning in their guitars while Zeppelin were always more flamboyant but this album brings together the best of both while having a rhythm section that is determined to worm it’s way into your soul.

I know there may be some true metalheads who turn their nose up at the drummer of Ash releasing an a heavy metal album, that would be a serious mistake on their part, they would miss out on a truly outstanding piece of proper, blues industrial rock (I think I may have just made the genre up but I know what I mean) This is a marriage between the relentless of sabbath coming from their industrial background and zeppelin coming from the English blues rock tradition but with added swagger, added style and an awful lot of some of the best guitar work I’ve heard in a long time.

The album is out on the 17^th of April and there are three shows planned to launch it in Sunderland, London and Manchester. If he can translate the work on this album into a live show go see it but take a neck brace and some ear defenders, you’re going to need both by the end of the shows.