The Damnation Of Adam Blessing - Damnation 1969

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." AMG.

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The Damnation of Adam Blessing - Which Is The Justice, which is the thief 1971

Though this was the first album they issued as Damnation, Second Damnation does, in fact, feature the same band that played on the earlier two albums credited to the Damnation of Adam Blessing. It's the source of some controversy among both Damnation and their fans, due to the addition of string and horn arrangements by members of the Cleveland Orchestra into which the group had no input. While it's unfortunate they didn't have creative control of this part of the production, to be honest, the orchestration makes it more interesting, and certainly more haunting, than many similar early-'70s records by okay-but-not-great hard rock bands. Damnation (or the Damnation of Adam Blessing, if you prefer) always did have a lighter touch than most other early-'70s hard rock groups, and made better use of background vocal harmonies than most such acts, so the collaboration isn't as incongruous as it might seem on paper. The original material with added orchestration included some of their best songs, such as the riddling lyric of "Fingers on a Windmill," and the Gregorian chant-tinged instrumental "Turned to Stone." Listeners who like the band because of their hard rock will find the curtain-closing "Sweet Dream Lady" excessive, but actually it's a quite tuneful farewell ballad that avoids over-sentimentality. Some of the tracks without orchestration are pretty respectable too, particularly the tough, mildly funky hard rock of "We Don't Need It." The highlight, though, has to be "Sometimes I Feel Like I Just Can't Go On," a down-and-out blues on which Blessing's vocals are a match for the best anguished blue-eyed soul belters, à la Lonnie Mack or Roy Head. Blessing's performance on this track is the best aspect of anything the group recorded, though unfortunately it wasn't a path they explored elsewhere. AMG.

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