Son Of Sam

Songs From The Earth (2001)

KipDoyle

First, a history lesson. Samhain was the band Glenn Danzig started directly after The Misfits and they put out 3 records in the 80s. Do to some legal bullshit, Glenn had to change the name of the band around 1987-1988 and decided to call it Danzig and head in a more hard rock direction. Samhain gets lost in between The Misfits and Danzig because they had less distribution and just did not get as much attention. Anyone who remembers Samhain or listens to the boxset that came out a few years ago knows that they were a one of a kind band who mixed punk, goth, and metal into their own strange brew. A few years ago, Samhain got back together(minus guitarist Eerie Von) to tour with Danzig. Anyone who went to those shows and saw Glenn play two sets in a row knows how awesome it was. One of the bands that opened on that tour was AFI. AFI's singer Davey Havok is well recognized as a Misfits/Samhain/Danzig fanatic. Where the hell am I going with this? Oh yeah, London May(Samhain's old drummer) is in Tiger Army with Davey's freind Nick 13. Somewhere along the line, former Samhain members London May and Steve Zing started Son Of Sam with Davey Havok and DANZIG guitarist Todd Youth. Im sure they wanted Glenn to do the vocal gig, but the man is busy putting out adult comic books and eating Creatin(no offense Glenn, you are the boss). Anywho, Son Of Sam put this out on Nitro Records and it kicks ass. I like it because you don't hear this breed of gothic punk anymore anywhere. Cool song structures, chants, haunting melodies, evil lyrics. You can tell this record was a lot of fun to make. When I heard that Glenn Danzig was going to be doing some vocals on this, I just about blew my wad. Unfortunatly, you can barely hear him in a few chants and sing-a-longs. I was expecting some vicious chest pounding Danzig howls. Its all good, though. Get this fucker, I mean it. Im sure this is going to grow on me like gang green. Highlights include: Of Power, Stray, Songs From The Earth, and Michael. Thanks to Aubin for hooking me up with this.