Ah, the Satanik Panik is back amongst us yet again. Allegedly. At least judging by the flame-ridden album cover and the entry monologue on the first track. All of that comes from a band geniusly called Witch Piss, no less. A work of ‘art’ that’s so typically late ’70s, I want to go find a time machine and correct this ever-returning theme.
And then, their album moniker bluntly states that The Devil Doesn’t Burn. Doesn’t it, now? Mankind has yet to find out, methinks. But I digress. Let’s see if this message of fire, brimstone, and social depravity still works today. Welcome to the oldish clichés of good ol’ stoner grind.
The fact that former and active members of the Belgian band Marche Funèbre are part of Witch Piss‘ lineup probably led us to fire up this here record in the first place. You may remember that Peter Egberghs got credited for the aforementioned band’s last album in 2023 and must have left shortly after the recording. The RMR crew now discovered that he and drummer Dennis Lefebvre joined forces that same year on the Witch Piss project and released the self-titled debut album that same year.
And you indeed get what the cover art already so bluntly promises. Like so many stereotypes handed down by the annals of decade-old rock history. The Devil Doesn’t Burn delivers a sludgy version of Stoner Rock and Metal with the usual doomish traits, punky elements galore, mixed with so much grunge one would think the ghost of Nirvana just spake. And indeed, Egberghs‘ hoarse croak does his very best to get as near to Cobain as possible. But that’s where this comparison ends. The band kicks that particular can much farther down punk road than the former ever managed.
The Devil delivers a foamy tracklist of soundalikes full of sludgy groove, delivered with a swampy yet somewhat monotonous raw chutzpah that stoner bands used to deliver their wares with for ages. The record even comes with the overused cringe of playing soundbites straight from old, often embarrassingly bad movies. At least, that Hollywood slop will be put to some intelligent use after all. And there’s nothing new to be seen here. Heavily downtuned guitars, the relentless thunder of the drums, the shouted vocals of the grouchy choirboys chiming in from the background, it is all there. Boy, you even get the occasional groove move and some wah-wah action here and there. Time to rip my shirt off and start dancing off my substance-induced excesses of – well – felt centuries ago. Or something.
That said, Witch Piss here created themselves a somewhat monolithic yet often embarrassingly repetitive sound that will rock any dusty stage where unvarnished, gritty punky vibes are still played. Try the title track of The Devil Doesn’t Burn to drive that one home. I reckon to get to the essence of the record, and if you’re short on time, that’s the track you want to visit first. But by and large, the RMR crew missed that underlying caustic anger that early iterations of that type of rock and metal offerings threw at the audience with abandon.
But ultimately, I guess you got our drift. It’s all part of the same setup. The Devil Doesn’t Burn delivers powerful, yet dime-a-dozen stonerware, roared to the audience with (very) limited anger issues. This genre has been with us for ages and is – let’s face it – hopelessly overloaded. It is thus laudable that a band would still decide that this is the hill they’ll die on. To get beyond the usual crowd of weed-fueled outrage would be to up the ante and really gross up whatever the consumed substances command you to do. Yet, Witch Piss didn’t power the oomph machine up enough to get into the real good graces of this crew. Instead, they joined the mush of already active stoner bands with a proficient yet astonishingly unremarkable contribution to this genre.
Record Rating: 5/10 | Label: Ardua Music | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 24 April 2026