Occult Rock Albums 1969-1975

Black Widow - Sacrifice (1970)

The concept of this album is about a girl named Astaroth, who the last time she was loosed upon the Earth, she posed her con juror's mistress. The poor girl was terribly tormented until, driven insane, she threw herself to her death. The year 1764, over two centuries later, a young occultist, having discovered the power to cast his mind backthrought his previous incarnations, revisits his early life in Egypt and hearing reference to Astaroth by a demon which he conjured all those years ago, he goes on to re-witness the tragic results of his experiment in the 18th century. The songs on the album tells the continuing story... Packed with satanic, mystic, witchcraft lyrics, makes this album the grandfather of all occult rock that has ever followed!


Jacula-In Cauda Semper Stat Venenum(1969)+Tardo Pede in Magiam Versus(1972),LPs,Italy

One of several aggregations of musicians led by Antonio Bartoccetti and Doris Norton (aka Fiamma Dallo Spirito) during the late 1960s/early 1970s, Jacula came together in 1969 around organist Charles Tiring and "medium" Franz Partheny. Relocating from Milan to London, Jacula recorded their debut album that same year - In cauda semper stat venenum was released on the group's own Gnome label in a limited edition of just 300 copies, for distribution to friends and the occult community - the album's subject matter dwelt heavily in that region. Jacula lay silent for much of the next two years, while (Bartoccetti, Norton and Tiring occupied themselves with the bands Dietro Noi Deserto and Invisible Force. In 1972, however, Jacula resurfaced with a new album Tardo Pede in Magiam Versus ("slow steps towards magic"), which included a reprise of the Invisible Force b-side, the apocalyptic "1999 Mundi Finis", now titled "UFDEM". The departure of Tiring during 1972 spelled the end of Jacula; that same year, Bartoccetti and Norton launched a new project, Antonius Rex.~ Dave Thompson, All Music Guide


Mort Garson "Black Mass/ Lucifer" (1971)

"A great proto-prog (okay, okay -- I'm really just making terms up now) Moog album from 1971 that's been fairly well documented elsewhere on the web, this was the brainchild of Mr. Mort Garson, working under the conceptual name of "Lucifer". While I know it's mostly just hard to imagine a major label running with something this "out there" today (making it an excellent companion to Louise Huebner's "Seduction Through Witchcraft" LP from 1969), the real surprise for a lot of the folks I've played it for is the compositional tightness of the songs, and how enjoyably it all works as a whole. Not just a cultural artifact from the early 70's, it's got some genuine creepiness to it as well that could easily be seen as pre-figuring a lot of the sounds Goblin would employ only a few years later. Note: As a bonus for folks who may already have this in their collection I've also included scans of the complete liner notes in with the zip file. Written by Michael Owen Jones Ph.D. (still a professor of History and Folklore at UCLA), they never seem to make the rounds when this record is shared, which is a shame as they're almost half the fun."


Comus - First Utterance [1971]

A six-piece progressvie folk/rock band that certainly lived up to their name. In Greek mythology Comus is the god of revelry, the son of Circe and Bacchus. Comus is also the title of a dramatic poem by the renowned 17th Century English poet, John Milton, and the poem's central theme - female chastity tempted in the archetypal 'wild wood' of moral perplexity by the demonic enchanter, Comus - sets the tone for the album First Utterance.


Antonius Rex - Neque Semper Arcum Tendit Rex (1974)

"Neque Semper is the desire to do, putting one's mystically inquiring super-ego on the top of a mountain and above the mortal beings.I think that Neque semper can be described as a concept coming from the dark of a black and white castle with differently lit rooms.Magic worlds, and self super-ego celebration.The fatal will to condemn the Human lownesses."A.B.


Mort Garson - Ataraxia[The Unexplained - Electronic Musical Impressions of the Occult by Ataraxia] (1975)

Subtitled "Electronic Musical Impressions of the Occult", this album by Ataraxia (meaning: "A spiritual balance, the synonim of a state of perfection that is not possible to be reached by human beings entirely, Ataraxia becomes a state of tension and we try to open our minds to be receptive and perceptive towards the occurings of life.") was an idea to designing music to accompany meditations to the mantra of the listeners choice. This concept became the album The Unexplained. It was the Moog-wizard Mort Garson himself, who followed up his Black Mass album from 1971 with this strange opus. But Garson changed his pseudonym from "Lucifer" to "Ataraxia", and this, his second (and last) occult-themed instrumental Moog-album, was released by RCA in 1975.