Artist: The Puritan
Country: Finland
Label: I Hate Records
Formats: 12″ EP
Year: 2008
This Finnish band was quickly started after the folding of one of doom’s greatest, Reverend Bizarre. Albert Witchfinder, here under his own name, brought back his former bandmates from another sinister project called Candles Burning Blue in order to create some heavy blackness.
If you are looking for similarities between Reverend Bizarre and The Puritan, I wish you luck, as there aren’t that many. Perhaps the repetitive riffing is the only link between both bands. This The Puritan is much heavier and feeds not only on traditional doom, but also finds inspiration from drone, ambient, sludge and funeral doom. Which makes this a heavy monster that runs on a snail’s pace to bulldoze pretty much everything. Extremely heavy distorted buzzsaw guitars are the thick layer on which the pounding, funeral doom-like, drums find their way to sink in. This piece of dark art definitely goes hand-in-hand with Albert Witchfinder’s comments after putting the Reverend to its grave. If he’s feeling depressed, that is no surprise for anyone who ever listened to this 12”… Impressive!
Recently released on one CD with the same-titled 12” from 2006 called ‘Lithium Gates’. If anyone is interested… It does sound way more crushing on vinyl, as usual.
