Customer Reviews

Unholy Passion

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I remember hearing Unholy Passion for the first time back in the mid-80's. It was beyond spooky. The whole album had this pure feeling of evil and torture.
This CD is great to have around, as I don't like to wear my vinyl out. The only problem is the re-mixing. The guitar tracks were all done over, and the mix was "cleaned up". I loved the orginal mix waaaay more than this offering. The original had a deep, almost throbbing feel to it, even if the vocals were mixed low and instrumental separation was non-existant. That's what set the tone of the album however.
Unholy Passion is one of the best musical offerings any group could put out, but the new mix falls short of the original.

First off, there's a lot of history to this EP. First, it appeared as 5 song EP on vinyl. Then it appeared on the "Initium" CD with an extra track. Then it appeared as the second half of the "Final Descent" album. Now, its back on its own. Another thing to note is that when "Unholy Passion" first game out, it featured Damien on guitar, but somewhere along the way Danzig, as he'd also done with some unrealeased Misfits' material, re-recorded the guitar parts himself (it was rumored that this was done to avoid paying Damien royalties) and I know that this was the version that originally appeared on "Final Descent" and that's also the version that appears here. So you're not really getting the original "Unholy Passion".

Secondly, this contains the 3 best songs Samhain ever recorded, those being "Unholy Passion", "The Hungry End", and "I Am Misery". "All Hell" (an updated version of the Misfits' "All Hell Breaks Loose") and "Moribund" are also good tunes. If you're not familiar Samhain's sound, the best description is sort of mid-tempo punk-goth-hard rock cross that takes its evil much more seriously than the Misfits ever did (but that doesn't mean you have to). And if you wonder why I keep mentioning the Misfits its because Samhain was Glenn Danzig's first post-Misfits project (but chances are you already know that).

Anyway, there 3 lowpoints to this release. One is the so-called "bonus track", "Misery's Tomb", which is just the backing vocal and bass tracks of "I Am Misery". Pretty dull. You'll probably only listen to it intentionally once. Then there's the production. Like all Samhain releases, the production pretty weak. The guitars are mixed too low and the vocals sound sort of muffled. And then, finally, the packaging is chintzy. No pictures, no lyrics, no credits, no nothing. Still, the songs, for the most part, are excellent so they make up for most of the album's weaknesses.

I own one of these (thankfully I didn't pay 270 dollars for it)
Bottom line is that it's a bootleg and while it is a very good one, it is not worth the asking price.
If you can find one for 20 dollars or less, go for it.
I really like the lyric sheet, though.

There are basically two versions of this album. One was the original one recorded by the band, featuring the guitar work of Damien. The other (later released) featured all new guitar work from Glenn Himself, and also it was done a half step lower than before (if I recall correctly). For the purpose of brevity I will keep this review the second (more common) released version, that is the rerecorded version reissued a few years ago and also attached to the original "Final Descent" album at the end.

This time around, (shortly after Initium), Samhain had even made things gloomier and darker, though I still think this is their weakest release.

The title track is your typical dark sexual demonic Glenn Danzig song, featuring a melodic riff played slowly with a very sloppy drum pattern in back. "All Hell" is another Misfits tune, I prefer this version to the remake of Horror Business on the previous album though, it just has something about it that makes it more fun (again its played slower than the original Misfits song). Moribund is my favorite track here, another classic Danzig song in the Phrygian "middle eastern" mode played assuredly. The Hungry End is a track featuring a very goth/death rock influenced guitar lick (think alot of different chords than the usual punk), and I Am Misery is one of the heaviest tracks on the album. "Misery Tomb" is a curious song, as its just basically Glenn moaning and singing with a bass track in the background. Rumor has it is that its I am Misery with the guitar, main vocals, and drums taken out. Its a cool track but closest to filler. Its kind of funny hearing Glenn sound like he's in hell with this one.

Overall, not as good as the other three, but as far as any Danzig Collection its definitely recommended. I preferred when it was tacked onto the end of Final Descent, because the mix of the two "eps" made one essential album.