I for one understand and embrace this mood, plus mine has a specific soundtrack. Besides the required rotation of “Black Sabbath,” my mythologized rural English churchyard is set to the sounds of Witchfinder General - arguably the most overlooked band from the NWOBHM period. One part Black Sabbath and one part Iron Maiden, Witchfinder General struck a pose that at once embraced the occult trappings of early doom metal as well as the sex, drugs, and rock and roll stereotype that was as much apart of Venom’s style as their cartoonish Satanism.
Before I proceed into the actual history of Witchfinder General, I would like to first explain my odd association between a 1980s doom metal band and the prosaic country of William Wordsworth. I first found Witchfinder General in the very early days of Myspace (the same place where I first stumbled upon related bands like Electric Wizard and Pagan Altar).
The day was a rainy one in northern West Virginia, and everyone in the household was dealing with the seasonal depression that comes when autumn turns into gray winter. I was upstairs in my room, trying hard to avoid my dad and his downstairs kingdom where awful Western movies reigned and snoring was frequent.
While deeply immersed in an Internet pilgrimage (my term for the aimless scrolling and clicking that manages to eat up incalculable hours), I selected Witchfinder General’s page mostly because I wanted to learn more about the exposed breasts that the “Profile” picture hinted at. The picture itself was taken from the “Death Penalty” (1982) album cover that featured famed British glamour girl Joanne Latham. The cover art shows the members of the band and one member of their road crew cavorting around in a Staffordshire graveyard with a semi-nude woman (Latham) in a vulnerable position. The debauched group appear to be depraved monks and one soldier dressed in the uniform of Cromwell’s New Model Army. It is suggested to the viewer that something unspeakable about is about to happen, and indeed the image resonates with all the markings of a gory horror film.
This aesthetic was chosen on purpose, for Witchfinder General owe their namesake and much of their image to a 1968 horror film starring Vincent Price. Michael Reeves’s “Witchfinder General” tells the tale of Matthew Hopkins (played by Price), a semi-legendary “witchfinder” of seventeenth century England. Set amidst the backdrop of England’s bloody civl war (1642-1651), “Witchfinder General” scandalized its era with its gratuitous scenes of torture and sexualized violence. For a metal band, there is probably no better type of film to be associated with, plus Witchfinder General’s choice of material links them with the genre’s forefathers - the aforementioned Black Sabbath, who also named themselves after a 1960s horror film.
For much of their career, Witchfinder General lived in the shadow of Sabbath, their major influence. When the band was formed in 1979 by singer Zeeb Parkes and guitarist Phil Cope in the quiet town of Stourbridge, Worcestershire, the intention was to re-create and re-shape the original blueprint of Sabbath. For the most part, Witchfinder General were successful in this effort, and their debut album certainly sounds closer to the original metal sound than many of its NWOBHM contemporaries.
In seven songs, “Death Penalty” presents simplistic, yet heavy, doom-like metal that contains few of the punk influences that were then so current in the British heavy metal scene. On undisputed classics such as the driving “Free Country,” the plodding “Death Penalty,” and the band’s sing-along “Burning a Sinner,” Witchfinder General carve out a distinct sound that occupies a middle space between ‘70s hard rock and the crushing early doom of Pagan Altar. Vocalist Parkes is often seen soaring in the high register on “Death Penalty,” whilst Cope (who also played bass on the record) churns out crunchy riffs that stay right in the mid section. Overall, “Death Penalty” is a classic heavy metal record and its many adherents in the denim and leather crowd is well earned.
On their next record - 1983’s “Friends of Hell” - Witchfinder General, now a quartet featuring bassist Rod Hawkes and drummer Graham Ditchfield, tried to further their traditional sound, but with a greater emphasis on slow, monstrous riffs. In many ways, “Friends of Hell” is superior to its predecessor, but most either disagree or merely see the two records as two parts of one, single piece of music. On the surface, “Death Penalty” and “Friends of Hell” share much in common. As with their debut, the cover to “Friends of Hell” showcases the band as perverted antagonists on the hunt for sexually vulnerable young women. This time around, the men of Witchfinder General are wrapped in the eighteenth century garb of the notorious Hellfire Club, and their victims now are four women instead of just one.
Indeed, “Friends of Hell” is not only a classic, but it’s the last Witchfinder General release worthy of mention. After fractious in-fighting (which led to the phrase “Burning a Singer,” a well-worn pun used due to the constant fights swirling around Parkes), Witchfinder General initially called it quits in 1984. By then, NWOBHM had given way to NWOAHM, or what is more popularly known as the thrash metal movement. Witchfinder General’s doom stylings were suddenly out of favor, and the slower brands of heavy metal would have to wait until the 1990s for wider exposure.
By 2008, Witchfinder General had reformed without Parkes. On “Resurrected,” founding member Phil Cope attempts to guide the resurrected band to a new generation of fans. Musically speaking, “Resurrected” is a convincing effort, but somehow the magic seems gone. While it works well as a nostalgic release from one of the forefathers of doom, “Resurrected” is a record meant only for old diehards.
While this might be a tragic turn of efforts for other bands, Witchfinder General still have unimaginable clout in the doom metal underground. Partially because they never “broke” like Iron Maiden or Motörhead, and partially because they never disowned the gleeful sleaze of their first two albums, Witchfinder General today remain firmly entrenched in the pantheon of heavy metal. The atmosphere that they cultivated on “Death Penalty” and “Friends of Hell” lingers on in the world of doom, plus, speaking personally, Witchfinder General remains in the mythical realm of music for me because they were THE band that introduced me to a new vision of heavy metal. Previously, my history with metal consisted entirely of Black Sabbath on the radio and Glenn Danzig on MTV. At the time that I discovered Witchfinder General, I was a punk kid with an addiction to fast tempos. Witchfinder General helped to change that, and it was their music, along with their image, that forever altered my opinions on certain cultural modes, from heavy metal, horror films, and beyond.
Words:Benjamin Welton