Spring is coming next week and I’m sitting down in my comfy chair, typing up the next review on my laptop on this hot, eruptive, yet sludge-fest that is like something straight out of the labels Heavy Psych and Rise Above. One of the things that caught me by surprise is a project called, Burned As Witches. The brainchild behind Burned as Witches is from Ash’s drummer Rick McMurray. The genesis of the project started after the passing of rock’n’roll hellraiser Steve Strange, who was Ash’s long term live agent, passed away in 2021.
For Rick, he was inspired by the love of metal, and the sole self-titled debut is about the chunks of doom, riffs, psych, alarming arrangements, and the blistering rock royalty that he cherishes and admires by keeping that doom metal flag waving, nonstop. Blurring the similarities between the loss of a loved one and having those revved-up arrangements going 70 miles per hour, Rick doesn’t back down without a fight.
I don’t want to think keeping that this album sounds like the Master of Reality-era from Sabbath, 24/7. Because that would be too much of a cop-out, but it leans heavily to Electric Wizard, Church of Misery, Blood Ceremony, and Bigelf rolled into one, delicious protein smoothie with massive amounts of mushrooms, ready to sink into! As always, Burned As Witches are smart, in your face, and in the words of HUNTR/X from the movie KPop Demon Hunters, Rick is showing other metal bands how it’s done, done, done!
The alarming powder-keg behind ‘Hold Your Nerve’ is an awakening-riff orientation, being caught in the middle of a warzone, not knowing what to do, explaining yourself of what your doing, and the drum-like sounds become this clock-ticking situation on how to get yourself out of in the line of fire. ‘Truth Comes Crawling’ is even more rough, aggressive, and carrying that hurt inside you went through over abandonment, confronting the demons, knowing that they’ve waited for a long time, asking why did they do what they had to do.
Rick really shows the emotion and heaviness he has carried to bring Burned As Witches to life. He ain’t backing down without a fight, because there’s an old saying, “Leopards don’t change their spots.” And those spots haven’t changed for a very long, long time.
When I think of ‘It Comes Before the Fall’, I think straight away that Rick is pulling the switch by going into this full-throttling force with sharp turns going left and right, providing the hulk-like arm growth muscle that he’s about to turn red. But not the Marvel comic Hulk, a different type of Hulk who will destroy the town with awesome power, and a slowed-down groove that comes out of nowhere. And if you think he’s saving them, he’s not. He’s in for the kill.
But there is the Zeppelin motif that comes out of nowhere which speaks of the Physical Graffiti-era which makes it even more menacing and more rising momentum to the spark of electricity with massive jolts to get your earbuds pumped up for more. ‘Right In Front of You’ feels like Rick had written this composition as an alternate soundtrack for Alan Moore’s controversial graphic novel from DC Comics, Batman: The Killing Joke.
You feel as if Rick is inside the Dark Knight’s mind, trying to find the Commissioner after the Joker’s horrendous act for what he had done to Barbara Gordon. And the lyrics just hit the story hard with its blaring guitar structure, Leslie-double tracking vocals, psych-metal, and the destruction of madness between the two main characters in the story speak volume.
‘A Spartan Mass’ is the calm before the storm. The gentle acoustic guitars bring a sense of warmth and relaxation to say farewell and see what the next chapter will bring before Rick decides to lay out more of the heavy instruments one more time in the final composition as he goes ‘To The Sky’.
Right away, he goes into this sermon, ascending the clouds to go into this red-blood like atmosphere as the sludge-like sound comes out of the floodgates. Okay, I’ll say this, he definitely goes into Sabbath’s territory. But he honours the vocal styles of Damon Fox, which makes it worth the wait. And bits of ‘Into the Void’ which really blares out of wonder and amazement.
Rick’s project is definitely worth exploring and worth checking out if you love the occult and doom metallic-like sound. And he is pouring his heart and soul into tending the light at the end of the tunnel with fierce research, mind-boggling wonders, and the adventure that is waiting for you.
