Reasonable early doom let down by vox and lyrics – 65%
Tymell, May 9th, 2010
What we have here is simply reasonable early 80s metal, neither outstanding nor terrible. It follows the template of Black Sabbath’s proto-doom style but it lacks the same degree of class and presentation. What comes out is alright if this is what you’re after, but other bands do it better, and it’s held back by some abysmal lyrics and sub-par vocals.
Honestly, “I want a woman ‘cos it’s a Saturday night, I wanna make her feel alright, I’m going to lay her, do you know what I mean, I really wanna make her scream”? This sort of thing would make Motley Crue wince. It just comes out sounding silly, especially in this particular style, and a comparison between Black Sabbath’s “Sweet Leaf” and Witchfinder’s “Free Country” is a fine illustration of how drug references should and should not be included in heavy metal music. The album cover famously features model Joanne Latham topless, and after listening to the lyrics I’m less inclined to think of it as pushing boundaries or paying homage to classic horror movies, and more like the lads thinking it would be cool to have boobies on their album cover.
The vocals need work too. It’s archetypal imitation of Ozzy by someone who just doesn’t have the same range, coming off sounding more whiney and amateurish than eerie and haunting. Of course, many NWOBHM vocalists lacked technical ability, but they had enough charm to pull it off. Zeeb’s croons aren’t atrocious, but they won’t get the blood running much either.
Anyway, Zeeb aside things are a fair bit more enjoyable. There are some good riffs here, even if not any outright brilliant ones, and in instrumental terms the songs are enjoyable enough, picking up more or less where Sabbath left off after Ozzy’s departure. The guitars have that infectious blues layer to them, and even if they aren’t as memorable as others of the era, they still manage to turn out some good relentless, pounding (early) doom. Songs like Invisible Hate and Witchfinder General are perfectly good early metal tunes, good enough to overcome the band’s shortcomings and get anyone banging along.
Death Penalty shows definite promise in some areas, but the vocals need more identity and a thicker tone. In order to really achieve anything, Witchfinder would need to stop straddling a line between doom metal and hard rock and pick a side, the mix of the two here simply doesn’t work. As influential as the NWOBHM was, it’s a fallacy to think that everything that came out then was a classic. Bands like Pentagram and Witchfynde were doing this better with a more refined and well-crafted sound. As it is, Death Penalty is only really worth it for a real NWOBHM/early doom enthusiast.
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