voila_la_scorie The title track of this album caught my ear a few years back and I always meant to get back to this band. Finally I did!

Killing Floor were a late comer to the British blues scene of the late sixties and cut one album and then sat back to watch their career... go nowhere. After some soul-searching and some in-band disagreements, a second album came together and was released in 1971. This album catches the band still clinging to their blues roots but also reaching for more powerful guitar rock.

The album's namesake opens the album and is a pretty decent rocker that the album notes compare to The Who and The Yardbirds. As a sample of the band's abilities, it's a pretty cool track. The title of the album is made apparent here as the band criticizes religion's hypocrisy of permitting killing in the name of God and then asking for forgiveness of sins: "It's from out of their ass!"

"Soon There Will Be Everything" is more of a doomy heavy psyche number with some very mellow and melancholy parts punctuated by faster, harder parts. "Acid Bean" is an almost punk-tinged hard rocker; "Where Nobody Ever Goes" is a harmonica-lead, hard blues number; and "Sun Keeps Shining" is based on classic rock and roll.

I guess we're on side two with "Call for the Politicians" which sounds like it could have been written by the same band that originally did "I Fought the Law". There appears to be a bit of a punk edge turning up in places. "Fido Castrol", a humorous title I think, is again on the hard rocking side of things but again not your typical blues-based track. Lots of thumps and pounds that almost gets a little weary when it carries on. Not a bad track when it gets good. "Lost Alone" is a combination of psychedelic rock with harmonica but book-ended with an "I'm a Man" type of blues rock. And then there's "Son of Wet" which is a bit of a heavy rock, stoner track that clutches a drum solo. Yes, another drum solo! What would bands of the early seventies do without their drum solo tracks?!

"Milkman" is a funny country rock track about a milkman making the guy's wife while he's away from home. The song gets more rocking after the first minute and has some decent lead guitar work though it's quite typical for the day. Oh, the song is alright and in a small way it reminds me of "Ice Cream Man" by Van Halen, although I wouldn't put the two of them in a boxing ring together.

This album has some pretty decent rocking tracks and manages to let go of the band's blues roots enough to let them pound and stomp with some hard hitting drums and guitar. The vocals could use some more excitement. Not a killer album but some pretty solid, heavy guitar rock.

cannon Emerging from the second wave of the British blues revival, actually arriving late to the show, Killing Floor was a third tier, minor league band from this time period(circa. '67-'69) when other blues-rock artists like Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After, Free, Savoy Brown, Steamhammer and others were at the forefront of this music scene. Killing Floor's second (and last) album was released when all but the hard blues-rock in the U.K. had taken a back seat to other new musical styles.

Killing Floor's self-titled debut from 1969 was basically a reconfiguration of the Chicago electric blues. This formula was previously done years before by many other artists and done a whole lot better. Chicken Shack, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers come to mind, just to mention a few. Really, there is nothing heavy to this album and even there is no metal present what so ever.

For the second album, Out Of Uranus, the band brought in Larry Page as the excutive producer and the main man of the Penny Farthing label on which this album was released on and is best known as the producer for The Troggs. Obvious he had an influence on the band's musical style on this album as it's reminescent of The Trogg's later sound, a raw, raucous, proto-punk and psychedelic reverb, a 90 degree left turn from the style and sound of thier first album and lyrically a leftist, flower-power, anti-establishment view.

The brash and gritty sound actually becomes grating after a few songs and the vocals, are, well... However, there is some highlights from the album. Some excellent riffs on, "Out Of Uranus" and "Acid Bean" but are far and few between. Probably the standout track is, "Soon There Will Be Everthing" with the great violin work. My ears became weary by the monotony and the annoyance of this album. Very tiresome.

If you're looking for that underground, counter-culture, leftist ideaology, proto-punk album of the day but also wanting to hear some proto-metal as well, you're alot better off checking out the Pink Fairies or Third World War.