Southern Lord Records: A Byword for Bitchin'
I first heard of this label around a decade ago when I bought some albums from the local hole-in-the-wall metal shop, Skinnies Records. Back then the store gave free comps whenever you bought something, and this one time they handed me
Let There Be Doom II, which was a sampler of various artists on Southern Lord (still have it too). It introduced me to Goatsnake, St. Vitus, Orcustus, and Thorr's Hammer, among others, for which I am eternally grateful. Back then I was listening to mostly old school thrash and other assorted 80's metal bands, so most, if not all, of the stuff on here was new to my ears. It was probably the oddest record I had for a good long while. The label never had quite the clout of a Roadrunner or a Nuclear Blast, but what they did have were quality bands and a refusal to jump on trends like metal/deathcore or the thrash "revival" like so many of their peers, and yet they had some truly big names that set them apart from so many other ****ty little cult record companies. I never really dug into their back catalog before, so I think I'm gonna start from the beginning of their releases and just make my way up from there...
Burning Witch: Crippled Lucifer - 1998
They haven't numbered the releases on their website, but they seem to be listed by date, so I'm assuming this was the first thing they ever put out. I've listened to this band once before, and know they're doom. Southern Lord has a lot of oddball artists in their roster, but their bread and butter has always been doom metal, so it makes sense to start with this.
Yep, that's doom. Heavy, slow, and droney, with some tortured vocals that make for some nihilistic vibes. Is that a chick singing? ... Nope. It's a dude. Calls himself "Edgy 59". I guess that was worth the effort of looking that up. They seem to like hitting you with some tastey, mid-paced sludge riffs, before slowing it down to wallow in drone. Never been much for drone, but the variety, relatively speaking, makes it go down a lot better.
The **** happened to the sludge? I'm about halfway through and now it's mostly just drone. Maybe Carpe would be more into this, but I'm starting to fade.
I had to cut this one short. I'm just not really that into drone.