Posts Tagged ‘danile’
White Witch – S/T 1972
Here’s an odd one from my old vinyl collection. Danile and I were at Electric Smiles Records in Virginia 
Beach about 15 or so years ago rummaging through their $1 bins and I ran across both LPs from White Witch. They were automatically interesting for 2 reasons…band name and imagery. I bought them without hearing them. Why not? They were only $1 each. I think that was the same day we saw Pantera’s first 4 albums on LP as well, but they were like $15 each and I wasn’t into spending that kind of cash that day.
I had no idea what to expect from this band. Seeing that they were an early 70s band, I expected something sort of Sabbath-esque and maybe a little proggy like YES. Instead it’s a little more psychedelic with a few flashes of prog rock. Maybe a little Uriah Heep and Wishbone Ash thrown in for good measure. Overall this first eponymous album is pretty good with some catchy chorus and musical hooks here and there. I bought the CDs for these several years ago and they apparently sell for decent cash on eBay these days. I sold their 2nd CD on eBay a year or so ago for $40. I preferred the debut album so I kept it. Now it’s in the stack to be sold with much of my CD collection and I am making the transition to going almost completely digital. Interesting that they toured with Alice Cooper. That would have been a cool show to see for sure.
So if you’re into the trippy 70s rock, I highly recommend that you download this. It’s been out of print for a few years. Read up more on the band here.
I really dig the guy’s vocals. He has a Barry Gibb tenor thing sans the falsetto. Favorite tracks are You’re the One, Don’t Close Your Mind, And I’m Leaving, Illusion (double bass!) and Help Me Lord. I do tend to skip over Home Grown Girl and It’s So Nice To Be Stoned. They’re both a bit goofy but pretty normal for the time they were written.
Tiamat – Wildhoney – CD Review
Tiamat first caught my attention with their debut album Astral Sleep. It was raw, simple, dark…almost run of the mill 
death metal. Typically mid-paced but it didn’t suck by any means. Daniel and I went tape shopping (yes, I was still buying them in 1991!). He picked up Solitude Aeturnus’ debut and I picked up the Tiamat. Great picks by both of us.
I certainly picked up Clouds in 1992 and I believe it was in one of the first 100 CDs I ever owned. I liked it a lot even though they slowed down a bit more. It was a little more atmospheric. Cool album for sure.
But then came 1994.
Wildhoney.
WILDHONEY.
I remember the first time I popped it in. I was doing some stuff in the house…probably playing TecmoSuperBowl or something. I just remember that the album felt like it was over soon after it began. It’s 42 minutes long but it flows. The way they tied all of the songs in together was simply brilliant. Wildhoney got even more mellow than Clouds. They added a certain sense of Pink Floyd to their sound…imagine the song Fearless by Pink Floyd with distortion and better production. It was awesome. It still is. There is not a bad song on it and I think it should be in every metalhead’s collection.
This album gets regular play, at least once a month. It’s a great one to drive to. Very smooth. They use death metal vocals, but not in a cookie monster sort of way. You can understand everything that Johan sings.
Even though it is very much still in print, I think it needs to be shared. So here ya go. Listen to it in order. Many times.
I don’t get high but sometimes I have thought about what it would be like to listen to this one on mushrooms. Let me know, ok?
The Metal Files 
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