Search - Samhain :: Box Set

Samhain Box Set Long Awaited and VERY Disappointing

Keith Berry | Maryland | 11/24/2000

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Considering this box set has been in the works for something like 6 or 7 years and now that it finally has arrived with a jolting price tag (much higher than previously stated before release) it's probably something you'll have to buy, but clench your teeth as you do. Included with the box set is a booklet of incredible cheapness, full of badly printed photos and boring, uninformative liner notes by Samhain's two drummers; we also get lyrics to Initium and November Coming Fire, but the way they're printed, they're almost impossible to read. No lyrics at all for Uhholy Passion or Final Descent! There's a comic book that's printed on the thinnest paper I've ever seen in my life, and the story and art inside are so stupid and juvenile you wonder how Danzig can include this and still show his face in public. Also included is a videotape with footage from 3 shows thoughout the life of Samhain, including a early Baltimore show in front of about maybe 20 people. I didn't have a problem with this; all of the footage is amateur videotape and has been complied from 15 year old sources, so it looks about as good as it possibly get. I've seen the same shows for many years on many different tapes, and the quality here is probably the best ever. Still, the shows are NOT presented complete, only partially. None of these shows lasted longer than 40 mins. or so, and there's no reason why they couldn't be included on this tape in full. The CD's are housed in cheap cardboard sleeves (get them out ASAP and into jewel cases; cardboard sleeves scratch CDs quicker than hell) and the tracks are badly disorganized. Unholy Passion, originally an EP, could have fit easily onto the end of any of the other CD's instead of getting it's own 20 minute CD. The "Double Live" CD is really just one CD with 2 different shows on it; the package is misleading on this. Finally, in terms of bonus/unreleased tracks, we do get some interesting demos of Twist Of Cain and 3 other tunes, but there's a LOT more that could have been on here. I have heard boots of alternate cuts from NCF and demo versions of cuts from Intium and ALL that stuff deserved to be included here....certainly enough space for it. In short, Danzig/Emagine did a major shortchange on this box set, which is a shame, because the possibilities for it were astounding. But we're not likely to see another one, ever. Final word? Grit your teeth at the price and buy it for the music, which is as ever great and is presented in good remixed quality, because after Danzig's recent rupture with Emagine, we're not likely to see individual issues of the CD's. This is it and we'll have to be content with it."

I'm a sucker, but a happy one.

Aaron Margosian | Los Angeles, CA | 09/13/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Ah, the Samhain box set. Could hardly call it "long-awaited", as it never would've occurred to me they'd bother, given the paucity of their releases back in the day. But I'm a fan, right? And what does "fan" mean, if it's not a euphemism for "sucker"? So here goes....First, you might mistake this for a Danzig box, given the competence of the consequently un-Samhain packaging, so be sure to open the thing up before shipping it back to Amazon with a letter of complaint. Once you do that, you'll find all three original records (with "Misery Tomb" included on Unholy Passion--revisionism, anyone?), plus a disc labeled "Final Descent" and a disc of live cuts. Not much needs to be said about the live disc, which is great, or the original albums, which are also great (and, I'm happy to report, not too grossly remastered). The real gem here for all you vinyl hounds, though, is Final Descent, in which the Unholy Passion tracks from the original CD are replaced with a few new finds, like a primordial version of "Twist of Cain". Very cool.The video is entertaining enough; sure, you've seen bootlegs with higher production values, but the band, who look like they're barely out of high school, are genuinely charming. This, after all, is what rock and roll is all about--but don't take my word for it: Look at the group shots on the early albums by the Stooges, the Dead Boys, or for that matter, AC/DC or the Seeds. Hats off to a group of snotty kids, who, admittedly, you probably COULD take in a dark alley, but rock harder and with more vehemence than you could ever hope to.The read disappointments here are the booklet and comic. I know, here I am saluting kid rockers and then complaining that that comic is so infantile as to be, frankly, embarassing. But these guys were always the quintessential horror rockers, the Hammer studio on wax, and stupid drawings of Glenn Danzig boning groupies hardly enhance that image. If Black Widow did anything similar, I hope they have the sense to keep it under lock and key; let porn rock be porn rock and horror rock be horror rock.The booklet is almost as bad: The lyrics to all the Unholy Passion and Final Descent songs are omitted (not that you need to care, anyway; as Fats Domino said, it's more fun to figure 'em out for yourself), the Danzing write-up self-congratulatory, and the other anecdotes (by both ex-drummers--go figure) strikingly uninformative. I guess the pictures are fine, but hey, the cover of Initium was always enough for me.Finally, the packaging is so cheap as to almost be insulting. Remember those flimsy containers in the Misfits box? Well, this time, Glenn dispensed even with those, going instead for the kind of cardboard sleeves you KNOW are going to get all bent-up in the car. You'd think $60 would buy a couple extra pieces of plastic, and full-size jewel boxes would fit in the oversized box, no problem.So the bottom line is, if you're considering buying this, and you already have the albums, you should know that you'll probably end up feeling just a little bit ripped off. Of course, if you're a fan, you'll still need to have it, as I did, and you're hardly going to be daunted by ol' Glenn's cynicism (does anybody know if there's anything to the rumor that he's the one secretly putting out all those bootlegs of the old Misfits 45s?). So to you new guys, caveat emptor; to you fellow old fans, I raise my glass! You'll dig this thing over and over, just as I am."

Great collection

rabiddecay | 02/02/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"All together this is a great box set the video is great and so is the booklet also it comes with a cool comic. the only complaint i have is the lack of unreleased tracks such as the archangle with chimes an alternate versions of novembers fire, halloween 2 and some other later tracks. also the liner notes are great but i would like to see some notes from eerie von since he was there from start to finish."