helterskelter.ca

SAMHAIN
1984 - Initium.
1986 - November-Coming-Fire.
more SAMHAIN.
way more Helter Skelter.

August 1984 - 2024: 40 years of: Initium.

Glenn Danzig's new freakshow.

From the ashes of the MISFITS arises the black-sheep of the family: SAMHAIN ...a bloody voyage inside heavyrock, horror and destructive hardcore-punk. It's going to get bloody.

The Initium debut-LP is all goth, evil-rock and fun. After disbanding the MISFITS, tagging along drummer Steve Zing, Glenn kept things moving along ROSEMARY'S BABIES drummer-turned-bassist Eerie Von, in once again true DIY fashion. When record-labels don't listen, you release it yourself.

A vast thick black cloud overheads us with the eerie "Initium" intro and then "Samhain" bursts-off like a massive brass-knuckle punch. The mid-paced "Macabre" pounds you into submission and Glenn's gigantic baritone voice is put to the test on the album's final epic track "Archangel".

The mosh-pit favorite "All Murder, All Guts, All Fun" is a fist banging-mania that will lead you to a bloodied-nose. "Horror Biz" is a thrashier MISFITS-classic reprise where both skin-heads and punks collide into a full testosterone-brawl, while "He-Who-Can-Not-Be-Named" brings hardcore-punk into blackness for a 1:38sec of pure mosh Armageddon.

In 1984, thrashmetal was still in it's infancy ...yet MISFITS / SAMHAIN had a major role in it's influence. Pivotal impact on the to-be world's biggest metal-band METALLICA, both Hetfield and Ulrich went on record that the MISFITS / SAMHAIN attitude is the spark of their early incarnation. Bassist Burton even had the MISFITS crimson-ghost head tattooed.

Key-players in the East-Coast's scene, this post-punk era shall mutate to eventual crossover. The twisted SAMHAIN experimentations would take a trek into the pandemonium, on 1985's Unholy Passion EP.

*
Initium = full LP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkDpk1fS_6M&list=PL8cEWRCFdCyMQzQsBNo0E1D7sYI0tpbqs
Live in NYC in 1984
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swPApo424u0
some guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7ZKX5A7-LQ

February 1986 - 2021: 35 years of: November-Coming-Fire.

35 years of pure horror.

The God-father of punk brings us power-punch #1 in 1984's Initium LP followed by 1985's Unholy Passion EP ...and now: everybody dies ! Glenn Danzig's horror show(biz) SAMHAIN uplifts the underground to new darks. Mosh-music, street-attitude and bloody-knuckles, lit it up and open The Gates to power-punch #3: 1986's November-Coming-Fire LP.

Darkness reigns on the "Diabolos '88" intro and then "In My Grip" blasts aloud in the most abrasive ways. The voice of Lucifuge AKA Elvis, is trusted on "To Walk The Night", a musical morbid tale, while both thrash tornados in "Kiss Of Steel" and "Let The Day Begin" are both a lesson in violence.

Glenn's main attribute, his 4-scale baritone growl explodes on the massive "Mother Of Mercy" and the deadly "Halloween II", a sequel to the MISFITS-track of the same name.

The 1986 scene was made of extremes of thrashmetal and speedmetal rabies, yet all of these players got a kickstart from the MISFITS and later SAMHAIN. Sadly, there would not be a SAMHAIN IV as lineup changes would ultimately morph the band into the now iconic bluesmetal powerhouse, the band-who-can-not-be-named: DANZIG !

*
November-Coming-Fire = full LP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yif6M-Sq26A&list=PLkTGErF4Gi_1XT9nTR4NwHJoE2quyrwEO
Live in NYC in 1986
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ye2salJ9HY
some guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Qi-EOeFLc

more SAMHAIN:

MISFITS
&

DANZIG
&

DANZIG