coven

Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls

(1969)

The point where rock music got into bed with Satan for the very first time

“This WAS Coven’s debut album and the first album of its kind. I can’t think of any other band like them from that time. the whole Satanic thing was, of course, pioneering. Black Sabbath only really had one song on the topic of the occult. Coven had a 13-minute spoken-word black mass on the B-side of their album.

“there’s some great songs on there, like White Witch Of Rose Hall. and the lyrics are intriguing. they’re like brief horror novels. musically, it had more of an affinity with the West Coast bands like Jefferson airplane than Sabbath. It had a strong hippie vibe with some quite unpleasant lyrics with not so much of a hippie vibe. the vocal delivery by Jinx Dawson is second to none, and there’s some super-nice vocal harmonies on there.

“It’s an odd record all in all. most odd records need some time to mature until people realise it’s a potential landmark. they probably made a bit of an impact in the middle of the vietnam protest song scene and the generic hippie stuff about getting high and making love. and it’s refreshing still to this day. Why is it such a landmark? the short answer would probably be: Satan and Jinx Dawson.”