Burn The Witch is the eponymous debut single from Stone Gods, a band forged from the ashes of The Darkness, minus titular rock icon Justin Hawkins.
The song combines heavy crunching guitars with a memorable guitar lick, while Riche Edwards on vocals shrieks like a Banshee from Hell, evoking comparisons with the epic wailings of Bon Scott and Bruce Dickinson. Furthermore, the band display a discernible ambition when halfway through the song they launch into a complex frenzy of relentless riffing. With these stylistic features in mind, Burn the Witch can be argued to continue the tradition of old school heavy metal in the vein of Iron Maiden, Motorhead ACDC and black album era Metallica. Therefore, no points for originality but the song is pulled off with such show and panache that it manages to transcend its obvious musical references.
Lyrically Burn the Witch directs a venomous contempt at its subject with a sense of abandoned glee. The communal aspect of this contempt, in addition to the atmosphere of outrage and unease in the music, strongly calls to mind imagery from films like the Wickerman. So while it doesn’t mark any new ground in the annals of rock, as a piece of menacing South of England heavy metal Burn the Witch fails to disappoint. On the basis of this record Stone Gods are likely to be a formidable live band.
