FEATURE: Coven’s Jinx Dawson: The Original Wicked Woman of Heavy Metal


I am in a cemetery in Brooklyn with Jinx Dawson and she is leaning against a crypt, cradling a human skull like a mother holds a newborn baby. This seems perfectly normal to her like she has done this thousands of times in her astounding fifty-years in the music business.

Which she has.

Jinx is not just a musical legend in her career with Coven. As the progenitors of Occult Heavy Rock Music, rightfully in the pantheon of those who influenced the whole of heavy metal, multiple subgenres, fascinations with Satanism, and not the least, originators of the sign of “the Devil Horns” in Rock Music. Jinx helped create what rock and metal became today in all its forms. This is music history, not fiction. She also did all of these against the backdrop of the late 1960s and early 1970s. In a culture that didn’t care for the creative force, outspoken feminist and witchy spellcaster. While Black Sabbath and Dio were close friends and allies to Coven, they gained supreme accolades and fame on the shine Coven started.

The White Witch in Brooklyn

It is a hot, humid day in Brooklyn, New York, although a gracious and consummate professional, the heat is getting to all of us during the two hour photoshoot for this feature. On one hand, she was getting tired of our shit, and rightfully so. On the other hand, in the moment of creating, you could see even for something like this shoot, she saw all creative possibilities, worked collaboratively, but remained firm on the smallest details. She is also hilariously funny, cutting us up with her locale appropriate gallows humor, that matched this writer. The shoot was shepherded by Ghost Cult’s Photo Editor and chief videographer Omar Cordy. The work Jinx helped him create that day is captured in these photos herein.

We are spending time with Jinx because she has partnered with Prophecy Productions, the vaunted underground avant-garde label to produce the career spanning boxed set, Half Century of Witchcraft due out on December 13th 2019. Not just a collection of hits, but an exhaustive, lovingly packaged, limited edition package not for the faint of heart, but aimed at die-hard fans and collectors. Limited to 1,000 copies and sure to sell out, the set features five LPs, a 48-page book, Esoterica (magickal spells), other materials, and a hand-numbered certificate printed with Jinx Dawson’s own blood! Other bands wish they were cool enough to do something like this, but again there is only one Jinx.

We are Seven. Seven are they.

Coven came on stage among the darkness and fog, and Jinx came out of that coffin and brought forth the ceremony and ritual and the crowd was gasping with anticipation. My heart was in my chest and I was getting choked up. This was at Roadburn 2018, and I never thought in my life I would get a chance to see Coven live. At the end of the hour headline set, she was given a five-minute ovation. I will never forget it.

Death to all pity, all prayers.

After we were done playing with dead things and invoking spirits at gravesites, we squeezed into an Uber to Greenpoint for a more comfortable setting. After we got our wits about us, we sat down for about an hour for a feature interview. Sure Jinx is a font of history and tons of x,drugs and rock n roll stories of her time in Hollywood and in the “scene” are the stuff of myth and legend. However, many interviews have focused on those things and perhaps not enough about Jinx the person, the musician. She seemed to appreciate my take on her career and why there were impediments to larger acclaim after such an inspired start. We settled on a lot of puritanical values, misogyny, and back luck as it were. We discussed her upbringing and how she formed her musical style. Go back and listen to Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls, Coven, and Blood on the Snow. She is leagues above most singers in the genre of the day. The band was kept from fans and that’s a shame. She’s been making up for it of late. This is not the portrait of an artist only concerned with the rearview. She is working harder than ever.

There is new Coven music coming. She just toured all of Europe and Russia and more dates are coming in the future. She is writing a book about her life and career that I can’t wait to pour over it. The story is not yet finished and more spirits are about to be invoked.

Dignitaries of Hell

I have been into Metal music all my life, at least since I am four or five years old. And I have been throwing the horns wrong this entire time! As we finish our interview on a pretty upbeat note, she corrects my form, thankfully without shaming me. Still, I felt like an idiot, but she was cool about it. She even explained why people get it wrong and why everyone had their own variation on it. She’s always dropping little gems of wisdom and stories, even with the cameras off. As one does.

Ave Satanas

WORDS BY KEITH CHACHKES

PHOTOS AND VIDEO BY OMAR CORDY

 

Pre-order and purchase the “Half-Century of Coven” Boxed Set here:

https://prophecy.lnk.to/coven-box-set

Facts:

▪️ release: December 13

▪️ limited to 1.000 copies

▪️ faux-velvet cover and golden hotfoil embossment

▪️ 5 LPs

Witchcraft Destroys Minds And Reaps Souls

Coven

Blood On The Snow

Rarities (unreleased tracks, demos)

Esoterica (magickal spells)

revised and expanded layouts

▪️ 48-page hardcover book

30x30cm, faux leather and golden hotfoil embossment

never before seen photos

extensive commentary and liner notes from Jinx

preface by Rune Anger

▪️ flag (62x95cm) with sigil crafted by Jinx

▪️ hand-numbered certificate, printed using Jinx’ blood!

Follow Jinx, Coven and Prophecy Productions:

https://www.facebook.com/TheOfficialCoven

https://www.instagram.com/jinxdawsonofcoven/

https://twitter.com/JinxofCoven

https://www.cafepress.com/jinxcoven

https://www.facebook.com/prophecyproductions/

https://en.prophecy.de/