Track Listing

1. I Don't Believe
2. Shame
3. What Do I Have to Do?
4. Why
5. Inside You
6. Falls Apart
7. So Wrong
8. Crushing Me
9. Sleep
10. Slipping Away

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48331 in Music
• Released on: 1996-01-23
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

No Sophomore Album Curse Here
Stabbing Westward follows up their successful debut, Ungod, with this gem, Wither Blister Burn & Peel. It's a tossup whether this album or Darkest Days can be considered their best work. WBB&P has a softer feel than Darkest Days, but that is perfectly fine with me. Their radio singles "Shame" and "What Do I Have To Do?" really showcase this bands' talent. Christopher Hall pulls you in with his dark lyrics and the rest of the instruments hold you there. My favorites are "I Don't Believe", "Shame", "What Do I Have To Do?", "Why", and "Sleep". You owe it to yourself to pick up one of the best industrial rock albums ever!

P.S. If you're disappointed SW broke up you'll be happy to know that lead singer Chris Hall has started another band called The Dreaming. Check out www.thedreamingonline.com.

AMAZING
This is undoubtedly the best SW album. It's one of those records that can take you back to the time when you first heard it on every listen.
I have to admit though, not every song completely works. For example, "Sleep", and "Crushing Me". Don't get me wrong, they are not simple filler, its just that they seem mediocre when played next to brilliant, moving, haunting songs like "Shame",and "Why".

It's an album of amazing depth and passion that blew me away the first time I heard it,and has only gotten increasingly more personal to me. And that is the ultimate test for anything. The test of time.

Get this album.

JUVENILE
"WITHER BLISTER BURN + PEEL" is one of those cases, where a seemingly promising album does a lot less than what is expected of it. It was released, when 'industrial rock' music was gaining substantial popularity. It was the time of the 'industrial' boom, after the 'grunge' boom, during 1991-92. When the world was thirsting for more 'industrial', STABBING WESTWARD came up with the single, "What Do I Have To Do?" followed up by the perfect 'industrial' song, "Shame" and the album, "WITHER BLISTER BURN + PEEL": A perfectly industrial-ish album-title, with two hard-hitting singles, characteristically 'industrial'; nothing could be wrong about the album, could it?

Well, actually a lot is wrong about "WITHER BLISTER BURN + PEEL". It does satisfy all the sine qua nons of an 'industrial' album: richly layered and unrecognizable music, plenty of distortion happening somewhere in the midst of the effusive synthesized sounds of all sorts, and yes, the essentially disheveled lyrics, which refuse to understand and acknowledge the beauty of the world around us. Still, "WITHER BLISTER BURN + PEEL" is far from an album, to be in awe of. It appears as if the band has picked out the ingredients of an 'industrial rock' album, and has tried to mix those ingredients, trying to ape their more successful 'industrial' compatriots like NINE INCH NAILS. Sadly, music doesn't work the same way as cooking food does. One cannot just pick out the essential commodities and simply try to cook them up to 'create' a good work of musical art. Music is supposed to come from the heart, and should flow naturally.

The two singles, "What Do I have To Do?" and "Shame" are original and misleading to an album, which they don't promise to lead to. There are of course a few genuinely good songs, amongst the weed of fakes. "Why" and "Sleep", both, with similar tempos, do, like the singles, seem genuinely conceived and mature. Alas, these songs are quickly overshadowed by a bunch of puerile works, which are indicative that STABBING WESTWARD seriously needs to come of age. The lack of maturity of this band from Chicago is most prominent in the lyrics, which they have written for this album. 'Industrial rock' music is best sung with lyrics of fury and spite. This doesn't mean that one should make the least effort to be creative enough to write meaningful hate-ridden words, and simply write gibberish trying to sound angry, hoping that the superimposed music will take care of the shortcomings of the sloppy writing. The band has simply sorted out words that have a demonic appeal, and has strewn them throughout the album hugger-mugger, without trying to make genuine sense, whatsoever.

STABBING WESTWARD needs to grow up. Badly, it needs to be more creative. With the quality of the honestly promising numbers on "WITHER BLISTER BURN + PEEL", the band should've been more careful with the rest of the lot, which overshadow the ones, which are indicative of a promising outfit, passing through a phase of adolescence.