Ahh, Burning Witch - what a terrifying band. Crippled Lucifer was one of those albums I got when I was younger simply because I thought the cover art was fucking mint. It therefore coincidentally opened up the drab underbelly of doom metal for me; not only was it slow, the absence of groove and most melody made it a painful first listen. I had no idea that doom could be so twisted, evil and harrowing. Granted, there are slower bands, and yes, there are heavier bands, but Burning Witch turned me onto a world that I probably wouldn't ever have touched otherwise, due to being generally consumed by endless grindcore.
Crippled Lucifer is actually a compilation record of sorts, coupling both of the band's records - Rift.Canyon.Dreams and Towers - into one package. It is responsible for bringing Burning Witch to an entire new worldwide audience, where they once wallowed in a fair amount of obscurity. Sunn O)))'s Stephen O'Malley played the guitar here, and released this on Southern Lord.
The one thing that really puts this above a lot of other stuff in the (now very over-saturated) doom metal genre is the insane vocal performances. Straight from the off they are a combination of throat-scraping, tormented wails and puzzling sung passages.
Words can only say so much. Have a goosey.
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