Damnation - The Second Damnation...Plus (Reissue) (1970/2000)

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 Damnation of Adam Blessing discographies ever since. Basically, however, the group's third album (Which Is the Justice, Which Is the Thief?) was credited to Damnation, not the Damnation of Adam Blessing, though it makes sense to consider both the Damnation of Adam Blessing and Damnation the same act.

To backtrack, then, the Damnation of Adam Blessing formed in Cleveland in the late '60s, including veterans of the garage bands the Alarm Clocks (who did a single with future Damnation drummer Bill Schwark), and the Society (with future Damnation singer Adam Blessing, aka Bill Constable). By 1968 the Damnation of Adam Blessing was formed, taking the name from a list of books in the back of a Ray Bradbury novel; Constable himself took the name of Adam Blessing. (Blessing actually didn't see the 1961 pulp novel The Damnation of Adam Blessing until a couple years later, when the author, Marijane Meaker, gave it to him personally backstage at a New York gig.) Their 1969 United Artists self-titled LP -- above average, early hard rock mixed with some psychedelia, pop, and folk-rock -- was very popular in Cleveland and made number 181 in the national charts. On their second album, 1970's The Second Damnation, they went into a more determinedly hard rock direction, still featuring the powerful, husky vocals of Blessing and deploying vocal harmonies with more taste and subtlety than many similar outfits did.

Released in October 1970, Damnation's second album contains a series of excellent tracks that confirm this Cleveland band's incredible creativity. The album also has great cover art, featuring the group in action, with bassist Ray Benich in front of a mastodontic amp. This album was not planned ahead of time, rather spontaneously created in studio (with the tracks being the result of long jam sessions). With this album the band succeeded in confirming their already well-defined style, and earning a place among the great bands of the seventies. Thanks to guitarist Jim Quinn who opened his personal archives to Akarma, this reissue also features 5 previously unreleased bonus tracks recorded in 1972 a the Grand Ballroom Theatre, giving listeners a taste of what this band could do live.