This is going to be the scariest spoken word record you’ve ever heard. We’re not joking…and neither is Vincent Price. The star of such horror classics as House of Wax, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, and Theatre of Blood (and, of course, narrator of Michael Jackson’s Thriller video) can barely hide his delight while he takes his audience through a graphic and occasionally grisly history lesson in witchcraft from the Bible through the Middle Ages, the Spanish Inquisition, and Nazi Germany. Then, accompanied by occasional eerie, abstract electronic music, Price’s sinister satisfaction only mounts as he provides instruction in the dark arts, with such tracks as “How to Make a Pact with the Devil” and “Curses, Spells, Charms.” It’s all in good fun, of course…or is it? The mysterious
writer of the script, one Terry d’Oberoff, has only one other credit to his name: as the “mascot” of an early ‘70s band called…wait for it…Black Magic.

This 1969 double-LP release has long been coveted by collectors of the curious and macabre, and for its first reissue in over 50 years, we are giving it the Real Gone treatment, reproducing the gatefold jacket and the full-size, 8-page booklet that accompanied some copies. It’s a combination history textbook and how-to manual in witchcraft, with a title page depicting a particularly unsettling spell called “The Hand of Glory” involving the severed, salted, and dried hand of a convicted felon.

• Indie Exclusive, Deluxe Edition, Black Brick "Gates Of Hell" Vinyl

Side One
01. Prologue/The Tale of Master Seth
02. Hitler and Witchcraft/Witchcraft in History
03. Women as Witches/Witch Burning
04. Witch Tortures

Side Two
01. Witch Tortures (Cont.)/The World of Spirits and Demons
02. Preparation for Magic/Instruments of Magic
03. How to Invoke Spirits, Demons, Unseen Forces/The Magic Bloodstone
04. The Witches Cauldron/How to Communicate with the Spirits

Side Three
01. How to Communicate with the Spirits (cont.)/Gerald Yorke and Necromancy
02. How to Make a Pact with the Devil/How to Become a Witch
03. Curses, Spells, Charms

Side Four
01. Curses, Spells, Charms (Cont.)/Potions
02. The Hand of Glory/The Witches Sabbat
03. Witchcraft Today/Epilogue