The Damnation Of Adam Blessing - The Damnation Of Adam Blessing / The Second Damnation (1969/70) [Remastered 2003]

Damnation was the same Cleveland band previously known as the Damnation of Adam Blessing, who issued two albums on United Artists in 1969-1970. Why the name was shortened remains a mystery and has fouled up the consistency/accuracy of both Damnation and The Damnation of Adam Blessing discographies ever since.

The Damnation Of Adam Blessing

01. Cookbook (03:51)
02. Morning Dew (05:15)
03. Le' Voyage (03:52)
04. You Don't Love You (03:21)
05. Strings And Things (05:47)
06. Last Train To Clarksville (04:15)
07. Dreams (04:52)
08. Hold On (02:16)
09. Lonely (04:27)

The Second Damnation

10. No Way (03:17)
11. Death Of A Virgin (03:40)
12. Driver (03:55)
13. Everyone (04:12)
14. Back To The River (05:17)
15. Money Tree (04:48)
16. Ba-Dup (03:21)
17. New York City Woman (06:00)
18. In The Morning (06:15)
19. Smile (01:05)

Produced by Eric Stevens

The Band

• Adam Blessing - lead vocals
• Bob Kalamasz - lead guitar, vocals
• Jim Quinn - rhythm guitar, percussion, vocals
• Ray Benick - bass
• Bill Schwark - drums

Notes

The Damnation Of Adam Blessing:
The Damnation of Adam Blessing's debut LP was a fairly worthwhile, though inconsistent, record bridging the late psychedelic and early hard rock eras, with occasional strong traces of blues-rock, psychedelia, folk-rock, and pop.

The group's strongest ace in standing out from what was, by 1969, a huge deck of new hard rock bands, was singer Adam Blessing, whose full-throated, husky vocals were — unlike those in so many other similar outfits of the time — powerful without being bombastic.

The original material was often built around jagged riffs that were more blues-rock-influenced than bluesy. "Le Voyage" is a fairly good Midwestern spin on the kind of proto-psychedelic Yardbirds songs that had haunting choruses and background vocals, and sort of like some of the best efforts in that regard by the likes of, say, the Amboy Dukes: "Hold On" is similar, though not as good.

On "Dreams," though, they could almost be an entirely different band, sounding more like the Strawberry Alarm Clock than anyone besides the Strawberry Alarm Clock themselves.

As another change of pace, the harpsichord-speckled "Strings and Things" is almost a hard rock-Baroque rock fusion.

The covers were indicative of the group's lack of consistent direction, though, with a pretty well-done cover of "Morning Dew," joined by a routine run-through of the blues standard "You Don't Love Me," and an odd, heavy, funk-rock version of the Monkees' "Last Train to Clarksville" (by Richie Unterberger).

The Second Damnation:
The Damnation of Adam Blessing's second LP (sometimes attributed in discographies to Damnation) went in a harder rock direction than their 1969 self-titled debut.

The result was a more stylistically consistent, yet overall less interesting effort that was closer to the standard of competent, but below-top-of-the-line early Midwestern hard rock bands, lacking some of the pop influences that were among the most interesting attributes of their prior album.

It's not totally run-of-the-mill, though, since Adam Blessing was one of the best singers in the style, and since the group were more adept at background vocal harmonies than almost any other similar bands of the era.

"Death of a Virgin" and (to a lesser extent) "Everyone," actually sound closer to the likes of Moby Grape and some of Quicksilver's more song-driven material than Midwestern hard rock; this and some other tracks are graced with some particularly exceptional bass playing by Ray Benich. Cuts like "Driver" and "Back to the River" are more typical of their approach, though, relying on pile-driving blues-rockish riffs and pummeling drums, boringly so on the overlong "In the Morning".





Many thanks to the original uploader: syren_aureola

See also:
* Damnation 1970 The Second Damnation…Plus [Reissue 2000]
* Damnation 1971 Which Is The Justice, Which Is The Thief [Reissue 2000]