Pioneering occult-rock band Coven teams with metal outfit Lucifer at Cornerstone
SAN FRANCISCO -- Late 1960's occult-obsessed psychedelic rockers Coven come to Berkeley to play a rare Bay Area show at the Cornerstone in Berkeley Saturday, sharing the stage with German metal act Lucifer and LA-based doom band Early Moods.
Fronted by striking lead singer Esther "Jinx" Dawson, the group had already built up a regional following around it's home base of Chicago since starting 1967, playing shows with the Yardbirds, a fledgling version of the Alice Cooper band and Vanilla Fudge, They developing a unique take on psychedelic rock with a decidedly dark lyrics and a musical approach sounded like an evil, alternate universe version of the Jefferson Airplane Their theatrical stage show and growing popularity led to a contract with Mercury Records, who put out the band's dark debut album, Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls in 1969.
That album was not a major hit, but it was notable in it's focus on evil subject matter far beyond the Rolling Stones anthem "Sympathy for the Devil." Songs included the sinister opening track "Black Sabbath" -- a year before the British band of the same name would release its first record -- the macabre "The White Witch of Rose Hall," "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" and the 13-minute "Satanic Mass" that featured Latin incantations, chanting and Satanic prayers. The album's cover imagery was equally blasphemous, featuring an inner gatefold photo of Dawson laid naked on an altar with strategically placed goblet and skull covering her private parts.
The release earned Coven some notoriety -- Lester Bangs even referred to Black Sabbath as "England's answer to Coven" in his review of their 1970 debut -- the publicity turned bad when an article in Esquire magazine about cult leader Charles Manson's interest in the occult mentioned Coven and their album (a photo of Manson holding the album didn't help). Mercury Records wound up pulling the album from record store shelves, inadvertently making it a huge collector's item that sells for hundreds of dollars.
Coven would bounce back when Dawson sang a song on the soundtrack to the underground hit movie Billy Jack, "One Tin Soldier." A couple more albums with fall less explicit occult fascination followed -- the self-titled Coven in 1971 and Blood on the Snow three years later -- but the group would eventually split up. Dawson moved into fashion, designing clothes for celebrities including Cher, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and Barbra Streisand into the '80s, a time when the unholy music of metal bands like Venom, Mercyful Fate and Slayer pushed the Satanic theatrics that Coven pioneered over a decade earlier.
Dawson would return to music in 1990, appearing in the unreleased horror movie Heaven Can Help as the singer in a band and recording new material with a new version of Coven. But it wouldn't be until the 2000s that a true Coven revival began. After years of bootleg versions of their startling debut, Dawson founded her own Nevoc label and reissued Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls as well as a collection of unreleased Coven recordings Metal Goth Queen: Out of the Vault 1976–2007.
Since then Dawson has been playing and recording with a new version of the band, releasing their first album of new material -- Jinx -- in 2013 and performing at the Roadburn Festival in 2017. The band is currently on the Satanic Panic Tour, a co-headlining jaunt with Berlin-based metal band Lucifer that lands at the Cornerstone in Berkeley Saturday night. German vocalist Johanna Sadonis could have given up on music when her group The Oath broke up in 2014 only weeks after the release of its acclaimed self-titled debut. Instead, the singer poured her energy into putting together a new project.
The celebrated hard-rock quartet Sadonis founded with Cathedral guitarist Garry "Gaz" Jennings would quickly put the blonde singer/keyboard player back in the spotlight. Collaborating with Jennings via online file trading, the pair quickly put together an album worth of doom-laden metal that nodded heavily to Black Sabbath, Pentagram, and other classic '70s sounds while spotlighting the singer's soaring melodic delivery. Issued in 2015 on Cathedral vocalist Lee Dorian's imprint Rise Above Records, Lucifer I was met with glowing reviews.
Lucifer was initially rounded out by Angel Witch drummer Andrew Prestidge and bassist Dino Gollnick. The group had only played a handful of shows including an appearance at the prestigious Roadburn Festival in the Netherlands, but the strength of the album got Lucifer a spot supporting Oakland's metal juggernaut High on Fire on the band's 2015 summer tour that included a San Francisco date at the Regency Ballroom.
But despite the well-received album and live performances, the group would take an extended break. It was shortly after Jennings informed Sadonis that he was leaving the band that the singer would meet with established Swedish rocker and multi-instrumentalist Nicke Andersson (The Hellacopters, Entombed, Imperial State Electric) and begin a songwriting partnership.
The pair hit it off both creatively and personally (they later became engaged and then married), writing and recording a new set of tunes that would become the bulk of the band's second album. Lucifer II was released in 2018 via Century Media Records. While sticking to the band's established retro doom template, the songs spotlit Andersson's knack for crafty hooks that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Top 40 radio during the '70s.
With Andersson taking over the drums and filled out by live band members Harald Göthblad on bass and guitarists Martin Nordin and Linus Björklund, Lucifer has become a festival favorite on both sides of the Atlantic. The band has stayed busy, releasing a pair of powerhouse melodic metal albums on Century Media as well as a brilliant cover of the Dust songs "Pull Away/So Many Times" on a split single with Kadavar. Lucifer recently released "At the Mortuary," the first single of their forthcoming new effort Lucifer V set for release on Nuclear Blast early next year.
Opening the show will be rising SoCal doom-metal act Early Moods. Founded in Los Angeles 2015 by guitarist Eddie Andrade and vocalist/keyboardist Alberto Alcaraz -- the two friends have been playing in bands since they were teenagers -- the group came together with the aim of combining classic doom inspired by Sabbath, Pentagram and Trouble with more traditional British metal from the late '70s and early '80s. Rounded out by drummer Chris Flores, lead guitarist Oscar Hernandez and bassist Elix Feliciano, the quintet began developing their high energy, heavy sound and quickly found a place in the thriving LA underground metal scene.
Demo recordings would lead the band to be signed to German label Dying Victims Productions, which put out their debut EP Spellbound in April of 2020. While the recording earned the band solid reviews for its old-school riffs and hook-heavy vocal melodies, Early Moods were unable to capitalize on the reception by touring because of the COVID pandemic. Instead, the group continued to write songs and eventually was able to return to live performances, building up their following in Los Angeles.
The band would end up getting signed to Rising Easy and returned to the studio in the fall and winter of 2021, recording their first full-length album in downtown LA with help from Carlos Cruz (best known for playing drums in Warbringer and Power Trip). Mixing the gallop of tunes like propulsive album opener "Return to Salem's Gates" and "Defy Thy Name" with more traditional doom dirges "Damnation" and "Funeral Macabre," Early Moods delivered a compelling collection of songs that will go a long way in establishing the quintet as a band to watch.
Their newfound clout through Riding Easy also led Early Moods to playing not one but two well-received sets at acclaimed metal fest Psycho Las Vegas that August. The band headlined Eli's last November, playing an electrifying set of tunes drawn from the album that had the audience buzzing with excitement afterwards. Early Moods has since returned to the Bay Area to support local legends Acid King at their album release party and to open for raw thrash trio Midnight.
Coven and Lucifer with Early Moods
Saturday, November 11, 8 p.m. $26-$31
Cornerstone