Dave Chamberlain

Samhain
"Box Set"
(evilive/E-magine)
release date: September 5

It should have been pretty clear last summer, after Glenn Danzig organized a reunion tour of Samhain, that this was coming, and here it is. Samhain was Danzig's in-between band, after the Misfits and before his solo career, its music best described as blackpunk, demoncore, witchevil and gothic bloodfrenzy--a slowed down and textured version of the Misfits, a less-swaggering brand of Danzig the solo artist. Indeed, Samhain was arguably Danzig's most interesting and ageless work. Culling together the band's collected works, the Samhain boxset is a fiend's pot of gold. Not only does the set include Samhain's four recordings on four separate discs--"Initium," "Unholy Passion" (which has, incidentally, been out-of-print since the late eighties), "November-Coming Fire" and "Final Descent"--but also a previously unreleased, live double-CD which features two performances, one from NYC in 1985, and another from Chicago's Metro in 1986. Every record has been, like the tracks from the Misfits' box set, digitally remastered and recording flaws erased; for those out there who, like myself, clung to the cassette of "Initium/Unholy Passion" until the sound was worn off the tape, the collective of CDs sounds like they were recorded yesterday. And as if the unreleased live CDs weren't enough, the box set includes a video version of both shows, with the New York set reminiscent of a show at any old, tiny, punk-rock venue, and with the band besmeared in crimson at the Metro show. Add to that the customary collection of pics and essays (including lyrics for "Initium" and "November-Coming Fire"), a nearly pornographic comic book and, of course, a pewter pin of the witchskull, and the Samhain boxset is worth whatever the asking price. (2000-08-31)

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