They were signed to Mercury Records by a producer out of Chicago named Bill Traut. Traut had it in his mind to one day record a black mass and release it to the public. Coven's first release on Mercury was a cover version of "Gloria". The catalog number on the single was 666. Coven didn't make much of a splash. They released an album called "Witchcraft" and this was to be the beginning of the end of their association with Mercury. Esquire Magazine did a story about the counter culture's deepening ties with the dark arts. At the same time, the Tate-LaBianca murders were big in the news. The Esquire cover featured a photo of Manson. One of the items Manson was holding in the photo was a copy of Coven's "Witchcraft". Traut had the album pulled from circulation.
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