TRACK #448:
Samhain by Deathrow
Speaking of bands that changed their names early and not necessarily for the better, the next number on our globetrotting countdown to Halloween is from a German thrash band once named Samhain.
They formed in ‘84 and dropped the appropriately titled demo, Lord of the Dead. On it can be found an incredibly rough instrumental version of tonight’s recanted band anthem, Samhain. 
By the time they’d joined genre stronghold Noise Records and released their debut LP Satan’s Gift in 1986, they had already changed their name to Deathrow. What a bummer. I dunno if it’s phonetically less tough, in fact, I’d say it’s certainly not, but it’s definitely less festive. And around these parts, that’s definitely a full on bummer, particularly if you’ve got a band anthem.
Sure, Danzig was already running around by that point with Samhain, and maybe that persuaded them toward a rename. Fair enough, I suppose. Plenty of bands have had the same names before though, sometimes even contemporaneously. It wouldn’t have been too big of a deal, but I get it.
So, Satan’s Gift gets released in Germany, but apparently the album cover was a problem for the uptight censors over here in the States, and not just because it was dumb as shit looking, though that may not have helped. Honestly having a hard time imagining anyone having a problem with this cover other than its general crappiness, but I wouldn’t put anything past conservative American censors of this era.
This is what is said, anyway. Discogs has a US cassette released totally titled Satan’s Gift and featuring the original artwork right under the retitled US Riders LP, so who knows. What I do know is this change does seem to be for the better, because that Riders of Doom art is way cooler than whatever the fuck malproportioned dogman over here is holding in his goofy ass hand. It’s got of bit of that awesome “my buddy in biology drew me this sick album cover” vibe that some old metal albums boast, but it’s not really that and the Riders of Doom art is objectively more awesome.
But that’s all water apparently on the front of this bridge. They change their name (unfortunately) and change their album title and art (fortunately) but the music inside remains the same and it’s proper thrashy and festive. It is a bit light on the vocals though, originally being an instrumental, so we laid some samples on there to give it a bit of the old Shindig treatment.
The man you’re hearing is Pastor Gary Greenwald, a man who is probably best known for championing the nonsense about back-masked satanic messages on rock albums. We and Trick or Treat (1986) thank you for that one, sir.
He’s also pretty well know for his 1984 video Deception of a Generation where he inadvertently makes He-Man and Thundercats even cooler than they already were. Thanks again Gary. Hell, even the fuckin’ Smurf’s seem badass when filtered through Gary’s fundamentalist fantasies.
But Gary also had a national syndicated program called The Eagle’s Nest, named after his Santa Ana, CA ministry. The Eagle’s Nest produced an equally infamous (in our circles) Halloween Special that is all kinds of enjoyable, and all these Samhain clips are pulled straight from there.
In true Sam Loomis fashion, Gary and the boys from Deathrow (and let’s be real, the bulk of the English speaking world) pronounce it “Sam Hain,” which is just as well. What are a bunch of America talkers in the early 80’s supposed to do with that word they’ve almost assuredly seen exclusively in print? In fairness, Conal Cochran was nailing that pronunciation just a year after Loomis’ flub, but he’s an Irish Warlock, so one would hope they’d come correct.
Interestingly, the guy at the end of this song, a late 90’s public access preacher from Louisville donning a devil mask to warn you about…well, the devil…pronounces it in a new and interesting 3rd way I had hitherto never heard. He hits us with a “Sa Mine” and it’s awesome.
So, to kick off our Heavy Metal Halloween meets Fundamentalist nonsense final mini-block of the season, here’s Gary Greenwald vs. Deathrow with their ex-band anthem Samhain!