Glorious Ladies of Rocktober Song #18: "Burning the Witches" by Warlock

Well, folks, it's here:  Halloween Week.  For the next five days, we will celebrate evil, mischief, the dead, and the undead, until All Saints Day, when everyone is suddenly pure again and the spirits return to the underworld.  Rocktober is no exception.  This week will feature songs with dark, evil, creepy, or macabre themes.  Dance, my little imps.

Our first selection focuses on one of America's favorite pastimes:  "Burning the Witches" by Warlock.  Warlock was not based in or near Salem, Massachusetts in the 1690s, as you might have thought.  Rather, the band is from Düsseldorf, Germany in the 1980s.  Fronted by flaxen-haired metal goddess Doro Pesch, Warlock put out four albums between 1984 and 1987 and had mild success in their native Germany and Europe.  The band performed at many a large festival.  At the legendary 1986 Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington in England, Pesch became the first woman to front a band at Monsters of Rock.  Warlock also supported revered metal acts like Judas Priest, Dio, Megadeth, and W.A.S.P. on tours of the USA and Europe.  The band's final album, 1987's Triumph and Agony, even charted on the Billboard album charts, reaching #80.  After that, the band broke up, and Pesch formed another band out of the ashes, which she called Doro.

"Burning the Witches" is the title track off of Warlock's debut album.  It's a snarling metal song, with a driving riff complemented by Pesch's wailing vocals and a pretty sweet guitar solo at about the three-minute mark.  The video is from a live performance of the song at Camden Palace in London.