Coven Occult

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.

The first book to explore the history and influence of egregores, powerful autonomous psychic entities created by a collective group mind

Three CD set exploring rock's dark underbelly and explorations in the occult, witchcraft, bad majick and satanism from 1966 onwards. As the Fab dream of the first half of the 1960s began to fade and the acid took it's unpredictable hold, spirituality in it's many forms provided some outlet for many of pop and rock's weariest souls and most enthusiastic experimenters. As the rock became harder and more progressive, the drugs grew dirtier and peace and love began to falter, the individualistic indulgence promised by the occult and it's many sisters drew it's cloak around already established acts and birthed countless other bastard and hybrid offspring. Divided into several offshoots and outlets - Buried Underground, Phantom Sabbaths, Popular Satanism, She Devils, Folk Devils, Evil Jazz, Beelzefunk and Incantation Chants - 'The Devil Rides In' captures a snapshot of that time and place, when rock, jazz, funk and folk took a step into the darkness, returning with tales of possession, witchcraft, covens, occult ceremonies, black masses, sabbats and encounters with He Who Walks Backwards himself. Enthusiastic and celebratory in places, damaged and cautionary in others, these artists offered a counter balance to the thread of Christian and Eastern spirituality also working it's way into rock at that time. Sometimes overtly, sometimes veiled, but always with something to say.