Coven - Blood On the Snow (1974/2024) [Official Digital Download 24/192]

We caused a stir of supernatural proportions last year when we reissued Coven's debut album Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls, complete with naked victim centerfold and instructions for a black mass. And Blood on the Snow, which features a violin-playing devil on the cover and images of a strange occult ritual on the peat fold, promises more of the same. But in the safe hands of the Who producer Shel Talmy, this release on the Buddah label from 1974 presents a much milder, even, dare we say, benevolent version of the band that launched the entire genre of satanic rock. Part of this was undoubtedly due to the fact that at the beginning of the decade Coven had received a foretaste of the success of the mass charts with her version of "One Tin Soldier", which was featured in the Billy Jack movie. And while the true infidel and lead singer Jinx Dawson – one of the unfairly neglected singers of their era – is still around, guitarist Christopher Neilsen brings a lighter songwriting touch to the material, former guitarist Jim Donlinger has gone to extend his interest in the macabre with the band H.P. Lovecraft That doesn't mean that Blood on the Snow is a pop record; "Don't Call Me" sounds almost like Raw Power Stooges, their cover of Alan O' Day's "Easy Evil" is the hardest ever recorded, and the title song just burns. But only "Blue, Blue Ships" with its melancholic attitude to mortality would qualify as a song about the occult, and numbers like "This Song's for All You Children" and "Lady-O" would not be out of place on a Fleetwood Mac or Jefferson Starship album, partly thanks to Talmy's orchestral production. In short, this was a band that was far more talented and versatile than Buddah knew how to handle; therefore, this was the last Coven album to appear for 40 years. But there is a hotly pursued; and for his first LP reissue, we pressed a white and red "Blood on the Snow" vinyl edition, limited to 1200 copies, which is housed in a gatefold jacket with an inner sleeve with lyrics.

TRACKLIST

1. Coven - Don't Call Me
2. Coven - This Song's for All You Children
3. Coven - Lady-O
4. Coven - Blue, Blue Ships
5. Coven - I Need a Hundred of You
6. Coven - Hide Your Daughters
7. Coven - Lost Without a Trace
8. Coven - Easy Evil
9. Coven - Blood On the Snow



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