Halloween

from the LP Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I, Noise International Records, 1987



Happy New Years!! Well, only if you still follow the ancient Celtic calendar I suppose, but seeing as how we’ve co-opted their biggest celebration of the year and turned it into a major boon for the candy industries, I figure it’d be both more fun and more appropriate to get at the true significance of October 31^st; it’s perfect that daylight savings happens to fall here this year, as that was the definitive line for the Celts and many other Anglo- groups between what they considered the ‘dark half’ of the year that’s beginning, and the ‘light half’ which is ending. They had a much cooler name for this celebration as well: “SAMHAIN”. It was largely believed that the invisible boundary between the living and the dead was thinnest on this day, allowing for spirits to make their way into our world for a brief time, leading to all sorts of superstitious activities that have come to be associated with this day (i.e. costumes, jack-o-lanterns, bonfires). It’s no coincidence that the Christian holiday of All Saint’s Day follows right on its heels, having been established that way specifically to combat the lingering threads to paganism which remained in the British Isles; some parents still like to get all frenzied and paranoid about it, don’t they? Hell, I remember even back in the ‘80s that local news stations would encourage folks to open and inspect all their kid’s candy, due to the ongoing sinister myth about Satanists and maniacs lacing candy with poison or putting razor blades inside of it. Funny thing about that though, when some researchers undertook an extensive study of Halloween related deaths & homicides in America, going all the way back to the 1950s, they couldn’t find a single case of a child being harmed due to some nefarious stranger tampering with candy---in fact, they could only find one poisoning death stemming from Halloween candy, and (not terribly surprisingly) the poisoning was done at the hands of the child’s aunt, go figure. At any rate, this track seemed suitable enough, an epic slice of prog-metal from Germany; actually, they called this stuff “power metal”, which I believe is what happens if Anthrax & Foreigner were to have a baby: anthemic, arena rock tendencies with a thrash foundation… throw those devil horns in the air!