Coven - White Witch of Rose Hall

First January 2013, we begin the year with a classic occult history and the American psychedelic rock band "Coven", they were formed in the late 1960s, composed of vocalist Jinx Dawson, bassist Oz Osborne (not to be confused with Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath), Chris Neilsen on guitar, Rick Durrett and later John Hobbs on keyboards, and drummer Steve Ross. They are recognized as being the band that first introduced the "Sign of the Horns" to rock and pop culture (as seen on their 1969 debut album release Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls).

Todays tune "White Witch of Rose Hall" is taken from the album "Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls" (1969) which is the first album by "Coven". It was unusual in that it dealt with overtly occult and satanic themes, and was removed from the market soon after its release due to controversy. (Even today, CDs of Coven's albums are sold only on the band's site at CafePress.com.) However, it remains a classic of its genre, and in some ways set ground-breaking trends for later rock bands. In this album appeared for the first time things which today are ubiquitous in occult and heavy metal rock music, such as the sign of the horns, inverted crosses, and the phrase Hail Satan. The album track "Black Sabbath" may have also had a subtle influence on the much more successful group Black Sabbath (whose debut album, also called Black Sabbath, appeared just a few months later).

One of the songwriters, James Vincent, used the name "Jim Donlinger" on the album. He actually was not a member of the band, but was asked by Bill Traut, Coven's producer, to write, arrange and co-produce the album together with Traut. Vincent describes the event in negative terms, as a "bizarre album project":

"Bill brought me a large box full of books about witchcraft and related subjects. He told me to read them and start writing some songs ... Sometime before the sun came up, I had completely written all the material requested of me for the entire album ... Coven also contributed one or two songs to the project."




More info @

Official Coven MySpace

Listen to "Coven - White Witch of Rose Hall" on Spotify here!

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