Damnation

The Cleveland outfit later billed as Damnation had previously recorded under the name the Damnation of Adam Blessing, releasing a pair of United Artists albums in 1969 and 1970. The reason for shortening the moniker has never been clarified, and the alteration has created lasting confusion in discographies for both versions of the group. Their third and final LP, the 1971 release Which Is the Justice, Which Is the Thief?, appeared under the truncated name, yet the two lineups represent a single continuous act.

The group originated in Cleveland during the late 1960s, drawing members from earlier local garage outfits including the Alarm Clocks, whose single featured future Damnation drummer Bill Schwark, and the Society, which had included future Damnation vocalist Adam Blessing, born Bill Constable. By 1968 the musicians had coalesced as the Damnation of Adam Blessing, selecting the title from a bibliography page in a Ray Bradbury novel; Constable adopted the stage name Adam Blessing for himself. He first encountered the 1961 pulp novel The Damnation of Adam Blessing a few years afterward, when its author, Marijane Meaker, presented him with a copy backstage following a New York performance. The band’s self-titled 1969 United Artists debut, an above-average early hard-rock set incorporating elements of psychedelia, pop, and folk-rock, enjoyed strong regional support in Cleveland and reached number 181 on the national album chart. Their follow-up, 1970’s The Second Damnation, shifted toward a more assertive hard-rock approach while retaining Blessing’s commanding, raspy lead vocals and applying vocal harmonies with greater refinement than many comparable ensembles.

The decision to drop “of Adam Blessing” from the name for the third album came from the label or management, according to the musicians’ recollection. Shortly before those sessions, Blessing’s brother Ken Constable joined on additional vocals after having contributed pseudonymously to the earlier two records. To the band’s regret, most tracks received orchestral overdubs performed by members of the Cleveland Orchestra, with the group excluded from decisions regarding the string and horn charts. Even so, the resulting album and its arrangements remain listenable, if uneven like the rest of the catalog; the combination of early-1970s hard rock and atmospheric orchestration lends it greater distinction than many similar efforts of the period. The same mild eclecticism found throughout their work surfaces here in the taut soul-blues of “Sometimes I Feel Like I Just Can’t Go On,” which showcases an outstanding Blessing vocal, the off-kilter Eastern-psychedelic instrumental “Turned to Stone,” and the rich, folk-tinged ballad “Sweet Dream Lady.”

The Damnation album failed to chart. Although the musicians cut one more LP, they issued it under the name Glory in 1973. Glory disbanded soon afterward. Every member continued working in music, yet none regained the national profile, however modest, once attained by the Damnation of Adam Blessing/Damnation. Bassist Ray Benich later served nearly two decades in prison during the 1980s and 1990s before his release in late 1999; the following year the Damnation of Adam Blessing regrouped for several performances, one of them at Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.