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Samhain - Initium 

Danzig took the name of the band from Samhain, the ancient Celtic New Year, which influenced the evolution of the modern Halloween. The band’s name is typically pronounced “sam-hane” (i.e. the syllables rhyme with “ham” and “pain”, respectively), though when the word occurs in song lyrics, Danzig himself pronounces it “sa-wun”, in conformity with the generally accepted pronunciation of the name of the eponymous ancient holiday. This is evident in the song “Samhain” itself, and in “November’s Fire” and the Danzig song “Soul on Fire”.

Ham and Pain made me laugh when reading Wikipedia to remember what I think of Samhain, who I first discovered in my freshman year of college. Perfect fall listening, as Halloween is about a month away and the leaves are starting to turn here. Initium was probably one of the first things I attempted to download via Napster as the albums were out of print at that time. How far we’ve come. Even then I knew what a mess of an lp it was, but I also loved it. As Danzig’s first band after the Misfits, it was his big chance to prove that he was the most important piece of that puzzle, and to also branch out stylistically beyond the Satanic Ramones image the Misfits had cultivated since the late 70’s. Unfortunately, it was 1983, and what may have seemed cutting edge and modern then, is painfully dated now. You can take it for better or worse, embracing it, or not, but you can’t ignore things like the over processed fake sounding drums and the cruddy sounding direct line guitar tracking. But you also can’t deny that, even when experimenting with studio trickery and inept-goth rock poses, Glenn is still close enough to his prime that he has more hits than misses by far.

The record begins with one of the worst openings ever, an ambient intro of distortion, echo, and tape noise that was recorded on a 4track (as noted in numerous interviews) and which is painfully obvious from all the “SHHH” and “PUH” that comes from using a cheap mic for Danzig’s awful spoken piece on this track “yoouuu think you know paiiin, you know nothing!” which sounds not even a little bit scary. After what seems an interminable amount of time, the first song actually starts and is pretty good. It sounds like a rougher version of the swaggery blues metal Danzig would play later with vocals on a heavy crooning Jim Morrison tip. The music is extremely simple though, and doesn’t seem to be much beyond a rough sketch. It feels unfinished with only a small difference between the verse and chorus, and not much happening in either one. The next track Black Dream reverts, somewhat, back to the Misfits formula, at least in terms of speed. It probably could have fit in on Walk Among Us okay. It’s good but, it’s not great. The next song is All Murder All Guts All Fun which is a full return to the Misfits sound, stylistically, and lyrically. I think this is worth noting because at least at this juncture, Danzig is still best writing Misfits songs. He tries to cover it up with more heavy metal style drums and vocal over dubs, but it’s obvious the song could have been a Misfits track. It’s also maybe the best track on the album. Succubus follows and is, in my estimation, the first total misfire on the record. Plodding pseudo metal riff, stupid vocal and keyboard fx, and hardly a song under all the muck that’s trying to hide the fact that there’s no song. It’s obvious Glenn was trying to find a new voice, but it’s also obvious he doesn’t know how, and he hasn’t found a way to break out of the box he’s in yet. Conversely we take on He-Who-Cannot-Be-Named next and it’s a perfect example of what made Glenn’s creative voice so good  to begin with. It’s heavy and tuneful, and sticks in your head. Another would-be Misfits track. Shame on the Harry Potter film franchise for not using this track yet.

B-side opens with another low, but for different reasons than before. It’s a remake of the Misfits’ classic “Horror Business”, billed as “Horror Biz”. Glenn tries to add more precision to the proceedings, and adjust the lyrics, but it comes off like a crappy heavy metal cover version. Like those Metallica Misfits covers. So unnecessary and inferior. Luckily the rest of the side (the last third of the lp) takes an upswing, starting with “The Shift”. This song is almost calm in its delivery, and the slowly descending guitar riff has a hypnotic quality. Danzig is crooning something about changing into a werewolf, it’s the first successful attempt on the lp to write a non-Misfits song that’s good. It segues nicely into The Howl, which is of similar content but a little faster clip. Again though a little more subdued and hypnotic which works well with Danzig’s croon. The closer, Archangel, is ironically an unused Misfits song, that sounds very little like the songs they’re known for, and instead continues in the line the previous two songs are. Its got a great, if crude melody, and segues out of the album pretty well. It’s definitely one of Samhain’s signature tracks.

So of course, what would a Misfits related auction be if it wasn’t some uber rare mispressing of the record. Probably like 20 of these or something.