Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

All Hell breaks loose from the onset and it ain't long before the suds fly and blood flows -- what must it have been like to be present at Danceteria in N.Y.C. or Metro Chicago back in the day?  Wish I'd known but here's the next best thing, the final leg of the Samhain sensation that began with last year's box set and individual reissues.  

Between the holistic terror that began with the Misfits and continues on in the form of Danzig, there lay one of the more dour and gruesome creations in Punk history -- Samhain -- it's very existence went against anything we'd ever seen or heard in that time or any since.  While elements of classic Misfits remained etched in the considerably darker, disfigured Samhain music naturally existing in the evil incarnate Danzig, there was a lot less fun going on in the music which took a deadly serious turn by comparison -- in as much as you can reveal with titles like "Unholy Passion," "All Murder, All Guts, All Fun," or "Death Comes Ripping." 

Anyone who managed to grab the box set likely wasn't disappointed -- there were a few dents here and there but a more than manageably done package revealed the true importance of Samhain on current and future psychotic Punk droves.  

Outside of its blood soaked contents, there's not much to absorb here textually, so you, the poor Goddamned listener, are unwittingly seated, stuck in the black hand of doom for this wild hour plus gore-fest of 18 up close and personal, poorly recorded heart-ripping tracks in their crudely, proudly performed original form, with only your quickly decaying imagination to turn to for comfort!