Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls

Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls
Studio album by Coven
Released 1969
Recorded 1969
Genre Album-oriented rock
Psychedelic rock
Acid rock
Length 45:55
Label Mercury Records
Producer Bill Traut
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]

Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls (1969) is the first album by the psychedelic rock band Coven. It was unusual in that it dealt with overtly occult and satanic themes, and was removed from the market soon after its release due to controversy. [2] However, it remains a classic of its genre, and in some ways set groundbreaking trends for later rock bands. In this album appeared for the first time things which today are ubiquitous in occult and heavy metal rock music, such as the sign of the horns, inverted crosses, and the phrase Hail Satan. This album also shows a subtle influence on the first album, appearing only a few months later, of the much more successful group Black Sabbath (the album also called Black Sabbath), with one of the members being, not Oz Osborne (as in Coven), but Ozzy Osbourne.[3]

One of the songwriters, James Vincent, used the name "Jim Donlinger" on the album. He actually was not a member of the band, but was asked by Bill Traut, Coven's producer, to write, arrange and co-produce the album together with Traut. Vincent describes the event in negative terms, as a "bizarre album project":

"Bill brought me a large box full of books about witchcraft and related subjects. He told me to read them and start writing some songs ... Sometime before the sun came up, I had completely written all the material requested of me for the entire album ... Coven also contributed one or two songs to the project."[4]

Contents

Track listing

No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Black Sabbath"   Donlinger 3:32
2. "White Witch Of Rose Hall"   Donlinger 3:08
3. "Coven In Charing Cross"   Donlinger 4:04
4. "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge"   Dawson, Ross, Wilkerson, Osborne 4:41
5. "Pact With Lucifer"   Donlinger, Wilkerson 3:32
6. "Choke, Thirst, Die"   Donlinger 3:32
7. "Wicked Woman"   Dawson, Ross, Wilkerson, Osborne 3:01
8. "Dignitaries Of Hell"   Donlinger 4:09
9. "Portrait"   Dawson, Ross, Osborne 2:37
10. "Satanic Mass"   Traut 13:19
Total length:
 45:55

Personnel

Production

References

  1. ^ Allmusic review
  2. ^ Even today, CDs of the album (as well as their later albums) are sold only on the band's site on CafePress.com.
  3. ^ "...[in England] lie unskilled laborers like Black Sabbath, which was hyped as a rockin' ritual celebration of the Satanic mass [...], something like England's answer to Coven." (Lester Bangs, in a 1970 article in Rolling Stone Magazine)
  4. ^ Vincent, James, Space Traveler, A Musician's Odyssey, 2003, p 43.

External links