THE DAMNATION OF ADAM BLESSING RARE 1969 1st LP HARD GUITAR PSYCH BLUES NICE VG+

$

25

"THE DAMNATION OF ADAM BLESSING"

 1969 United Artists UAS 6738 label

The condition of the cover is a nice VG+ to EX with a upper right cut-corner (see photos), no seam splits or writing.  The condition of the disc is a nice VG+.

Cleveland, Ohio's Damnation of Adam Blessing scored only a few regional hits and barely dented the national charts, but artistically, they were far and away more original and innovative than any band from their hometown and could even make that case with plenty from outside Ohio. Damnation's focus was obviously on contemporary hard rock, but the arrangements were far more advanced. While most heavy rock acts featured screaming or shouting vocalists, Damnation tested the waters with low-range, gospel-like harmonies and Adam Blessing's grinding yet melodic lead guitars. Songs would quickly shift from simple rock arrangements into idiosyncratic middle-eights - sometimes over a pounding rhythm by drummer Bill Schwark and bassist Ray Benich, sometimes enhancing a ballad. And when it came to hooks, Damnation could lure in the listener almost every time.

Bassist Ray Benich's penchant for conflict would be a recurring theme throughout their existence. "He was the violent one in the group," Jim Quinn said. "If there was a fight starting somewhere, you could guarantee he was in the middle of it." "He was so unpredictable, and you just didn't know what to expect from him," Bill Schwark added. "I was scared of him, very scared of him. I tried to avoid him as much as possible. When somebody did something to the extremes, it was always Ray. It was almost too weird at times - just scary weird." Benich, only 18 when this first Damnation album was recorded, also got his bandmates' attention by evading the draft that year. The Damnation of Adam Blessing's debut LP is a worthwhile record bridging the late psychedelic and early hard rock eras, with occasional strong traces of blues-rock, psychedelia, folk-rock, and poprock melodics. 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. On "Dreams," though, they could almost be an entirely different band, sounding more like the Strawberry Alarm Clock. As another change of pace, the harpsichord-speckled "Strings and Things" is almost a hard rock-Baroque rock fusion. 

RARE 1969 VINTAGE VINYL IN NICE KEEPER CONDITION!

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