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Rating: Samhain represents the dark link between Glenn Danzig, the front-man of the legendary Misfits, and Glenn Danzig, the solo artist. On one side, the man who helped write true anthems of punk culture like "Attitude", "Halloween", "Skulls", and "Last Caress"; on the other, the author of the mephistophelean rock of which "Mother", "Am I Demon", "Snakes of Christ", and "Dirty Black Summer" are valid examples. In the Samhain experience, these two apparently irreconcilable souls seem to coexist, and while it's true that the sounds remain essentially anchored to the punk of their beginnings, the presence of the obsessions and dark visions that will characterize this controversial artist's future career is undeniable, even if still in embryonic form.
Having left the Misfits, Danzig essentially continued their discourse but unconsciously seemed to already want to probe and indulge the negative energies of his overflowing ego. After recruiting drummer Steve Zing and bassist Eerie Von, the corpulent singer, also taking on guitar duties as well as writing lyrics and music, founded Samhain, to be seen, in their very brief life (only two albums to their credit, this one and the following "November-Coming Fire", barring a useless reunion at the end of the nineties), as the antechamber of his solo career.
Opening the twenty-six terse minutes of this "Initium", released in 1984 and called to represent Danzig's artistic rebirth, is a disturbing introduction in which the singer's ungraceful voice, amidst gusts of wind and infernal noises, reels off apocalyptic verses and dark invocations, foreshadowing an imminent end. Then comes the title track, which well represents the album's content: a murky and threatening punk with slight Sabbathian overtones, supported by deadly mid-tempos and animated by the singer's crude bellowing, still far from the Morrisonian shores he will embrace with extreme conviction in the future.
There will certainly be instances of rambunctious and jolly rock'n'roll in typical Misfits style, such as "Black Dream", "All Murder, All Guts, All Fun", "He-who-can-not-be-named", and "Horror Biz." But there will also be opportunities to sample some novelties, and I'm talking about tracks that, while still generally adhering to classic punk canons, carry an atmosphere tense and morbid, absolutely foreign to the genre, where tempos slow, and the guitar weaves obsessive patterns ("Macabre", complete with cowbells, damned choirs, and Glenn's Ossianic screams, is the most perfect example).
The most interesting surprises, however, are reserved for the finale, where, in my opinion, with satisfactory results, there's a collision with the dark universe: "The Shift", slow in its progress, quite reminiscent of what Joy Division did in "Closer", while "The Howl" adopts the tribal and impetuous pace of Bauhaus's "In the Flat Field". The concluding "Archangel", finally, seems to echo the Cure's "Boys Don't Cry". All naturally seasoned with the devilish Elvis-like screams of the good Danzig.
It's needless to add that the level of technical proficiency is close to zero (although, I must say, the tracks, despite being simple, are extremely effective in their rawness) and that the sound is as sparse and unripe as few others. But perhaps right here lies the charm of the work: Samhain's primordial punk is timeless, it doesn't seem to come from a shabby basement but directly from the depths of Hell (and the grim cover, distant in its rawness from the cartoonish attitude of the Misfits, only confirms this!). Something totally foreign to the style and themes that characterize the genre, and which vaguely (very vaguely) could be compared to the death-rock of Christian Death. Well aware that Danzig is neither Rozz Williams nor, much less, Ian Curtis or Robert Smith.
Frankly, it seems pointless to waste more words on this formation, which certainly hasn't changed the history of music and may only reveal real interest to the most completist fans of Danzig and, of course, to all lovers of the Misfits' horror punk.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Black Dream (01:56)
Who are you that taunts my nights
With darkness and reproach
Are you she
Embracing devils never to awake
Pretty pretty black dream
Give me infinity's kiss
Pretty pretty
Pretty black one
Your lips I hunger for
'Cause I want it
And I need it
Your tongue I hunger for
Want it
And I need it
Black dream can kiss me loose
Oh
Your existence is only that which
Causes inner pain
Cradle lifeless bodies
In the bosom of your hell
Pretty pretty black dream
Give me infinity's kiss
Pretty pretty
Pretty black one
Your lips I hunger for
'Cause I want it
And I need it
Your tongue I hunger for
Want it
And I need it
Black dream can kiss me loose
Whoa go go oh
Black dream, black dream, black dream
Black dream, black dream, black dream
Black dream
When you come I'll be waiting here
03 All Murder, All Guts, All Fun (02:39)
Murder, all guts, all fun
All murder, all guts, all fun
A kick in the head, a gouged out eye
Your intestines explode and your eyeballs pop
And the taste of your blood will drive me on
You see I get what I want, and I want when you bleed
'Cause the things I can cause have the seal of the dead
In humanity's fading glow
All Murder, All Guts, All Fun
Whose little arms encircle me to make me think of love
Whose supple body aims to be a limbless bloody stump
Do you, do you, do you realize
That I like this thing I am
All murder, all guts, all fun
Because I like when chests are torn apart
The way that heads come off
And the way that art starts to imitate life
At the end of a gun
At the edge of a knife
And all murder, all guts, all fun
Go
Whose little arms encircle me to make me think of love
Whose supple body aims to be a limbless bloody stump
Do you, do you, do you realize
That I like this thing I am, come on I'll kill you
All murder, all guts, all fun
All murder, all guts, all fun
All murder, all guts, all fun
All murder, all guts, all fun
All murder, all guts, all fun
All murder, all guts, all fun
All murder, all guts, all fun
All murder, all guts, all fun
04 Macabre (02:10)
(Cerebrus) Birth is pain
(Succubus) Life is pain
(Cerebrus) Death is pain
(Succubus)
Mortals of leveled grace
The worlds end fierce
We who live are ever dead
(Cerebrus) Spine of cat
(Succubus) Spine of heaven split to form hell
Mortals of leveled grace
Feel thine end dark
We who live are ever dead
(Cerebrus, cerebrus)
(Cerebrus) The path is withered
(Cerebrus) Rotted and deceased
The feet are cloven
The child is burned
Birth is pain
Life is pain
(Cerebrus) Death is pain
(Succubus) Birth is pain
Mortals of leveled grace
Your days number now
We who live
Are ever dead
(Cerebrus) Spine of cat
(Succubus) Spine of heaven split to form hell
Mortals of leveled grace
The worlds end fierce
We who live are ever dead
(Cerebrus)
06 Horror Biz (02:37)
Too much horror business
Drivin' late at night
Psycho '88
My bathroom is new
You, you don't go in the back
Psycho '88
12 o'clock, don't be late
All this horror business
My mirrors are black
You, you don't go in the bathroom with me
I'm warning you
I'll put a knife right in you
Warning you
I'll put a knife right in you
Warning you
I'll put a knife right in you
Too much horror business
Drivin' late at night
Psycho '88
My bathroom is not for you
You, you don't go in the bathroom
Psycho '88
12 o'clock, don't be late
All this horror business
My mirrors are black for you
You, you don't go in the bathroom with me
Warning you
I'll put a knife right in you
Warning you
I'll put a knife right in you
Warning you
I'll put a knife right in you
Warning you
I'll put a knife right in you
Warning you
Nobody can do
What I can do for you
07 The Shift (03:07)
the shift starts
your spine stiffens
you break out in a cold cold sweat
then the muscular convulsions
tear at you brain
leaving you snarling and snapping at air
your thoughts
are of tearing asunder
all that exists in a
mans world
control does not exist
you're in the shift and hell has begun
the shift starts
the growl comes from the stomach up
back from the base of the vertabrae
razorback hair straight up
fluid shoots from you mouth and lungs
razorneck
of a carnal-dog-thing
carnal in fury carnal in lust
you burn from the power
it tremors the senses
keen and cool
and ready for blood
back up
from the stomack up
back from the base of the vertabrae
razorback hair straight up
carnal in fury
carnal in lust
08 The Howl (02:48)
there is a human slaughterhouse
up on the hill
the road is red
and those who ignore
and thoe who pretend
it does not exist
end up in it's hull
my blood goes to work
i hear the howl
there is a grove of bleached bones
where lupins vomit childrens limbs
taking all their liberties
with parts of human anatomy
and in the hollow of a restless soul
lies no remorse and no disgust
every kill is clean and pure
every thought is cleansed in growls
there is a grove of tortured forms
where all is dark and deeds are foul
and those who ignore
and thoes who pretend
that the howl is a joke
their children lie dead
09 Archangel (05:11)
Go
Heaven sends me here to you
And if a-you fear you've reason to
Open up all seven seals
The beast is come to claim the youth
Archangel
Archangel
Defiant brood
Defiant brood
I call on you
Casted down my bretheren
Rebels from authority
Power, pride, contempt and lust
All these things I give to you
Archangel
Archangel
Defiant brood
Defiant brood
I call on you
I am not your son of God
The prince of light will show no fear
Mine is that which rules this world
The beast is come, I am the end
Archangel
Archangel
And when they cast out the brood
For the sin of pride misused
And when they cast down to Hell
F**king brood
Archangel
Archangel
Heaven sends me here to you
And if a-you fear you've reason to
Open up all seven seals
The beast is come to claim the youth
Archangel
Archangel
Archangel
Archangel
Go
Archangel
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