dtguitarfan As I contemplated how to review this album, I began listening to it to refresh the songs in my mind. I had to do this one justice as it is very probably the most historically significant album of all times for the history of Metal. So I'm listening to the opening track, and my wife says, from the kitchen "what's that wailing...noise?!" I laughed, and said "it's Ozzy! *pause* You know, Ozzy Osbourne?" I told her this was the debut album from Black Sabbath, and began telling her how it was legendary as the first Metal album ever. I told her the story of Tony Iommi, how he had suffered a machinist accident while working in a sheet metal factory, losing the tips of two fingers on his right hand. Being a left-handed guitarist, this was a crippling injury for him. But the story doesn't end there - inspired by the story of Jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, who also lost the use of two fingers, Tony came up with two very innovative ideas. First, he crafted custom thimble like devices out of metal with leather coverings - fake fingers. He also down-tuned his guitar to ease the tension on his fingers. The down-tuning gave his playing a very distinct, dark tone, and the "thimble" finger tips gave his playing a sharper, heavier feel, and metal was born. I told my wife, in conclusion, that Tony Iommi was often credited as the father of all Metal music! My wife said, in a subtly sarcastic way, "oh, lucky for us!" And I laughed to myself quietly, reveling in this wonderful piece of history.

dtguitarfan Well, what can I say? This is obviously an important album, based on the fact that it is one of the most well known albums of all time. Not only is it a milestone of Classic Rock, but it is one of the origin albums for Metal and Progressive Metal alike. As a Progressive Metal fan, I speak to my fellow Progressive Metal fans when I say: if you want to understand where the genre came from, you need to listen to this album, especially paying attention to "Black Dog" and "Stairway to Heaven". This band defined a genre, and inspired many and will continue to inspire many who follow them.

UMUR "Sheer Heart Attack" is the 3rd full-length studio album by UK rock act Queen. The album was released through EMI/Parlophone (Europe) and Elektra/Hollywood Records (US) in November 1974, only seven months after the release of "Queen II (1974)".

There´s no questioning the band were on a creative high in those years and producing two releases as brilliant as "Queen II" and "Sheer Heart Attack" in under a year is quite the achivement in my book. Musically "Sheer Heart Attack" pretty much continue down the theatrical rock road of "Queen II" but with an occasionally added more hard rocking edge (not that "Queen II" didn´t have a couple of really hard rocking moments too). "Brighton Rock" and especially the fast-paced proto metal track "Stone Cold Crazy" are examples of Queen when they rock out. The latter mentioned has one of the most infectiously hard edged rock/metal riffs I have ever heard. Pure metallic joy.

Like most of Queen´s releases, "Sheer Heart Attack" is of a quite eclectic nature and in addition to the hard rocking tracks, the album feautures both epic, theatrical, progressive and ballad type elements. Everything is delivered with great skill both instrumentally and vocally. The powerful and organic sound production further enhances the listening experience.

"Sheer Heart Attack" was the album that provided international mainstream popularity to Queen. The first two albums had mostly provided them with UK success but the success of the "Killer Queen" single and a high chart placement for the album itself in both the UK and the US, gave them the last boost. "Sheer Heart Attack" is an excellent release by Queen and I fully understand why it was a success upon release. I think the flow of the album could have been slightly better with a couple of better tracks placements, but it´s really a minor issue and a 4 - 4.5 star (85%) rating is fully deserved.

UMUR "Kick Out the Jams" is the debut album by US hard rock act MC5. The album was released through Elektra Records in February 1969. A bit out of the ordinary the album is a live album instead of a studio recording like the case is with most debut albums. Elektra Records felt that the band´s energy and wild performance were best captured in a live setting. "Kick Out the Jams" was recorded live on October 30 and 31, 1968, at Detroit's Grande Ballroom. The album sparked some controversy as the word "Motherfucker" is shouted on the album and also appeared on the inner sleeve of the first pressing of the album. That version was soon pulled from stores and two different versions with censored album covers where pressed after that. Even after that the band had trouble with the major department store Hudson´s, which refused to sell the album. In reaction to that MC5 moved in an add which depicted Rob Tyner and the words "Fuck Hudson´s". Although the band have later claimed that Elektra Records was in on the idea, MC5 was subsequently fired from the label to end the conflict. Damage control.

From the above it should be clear that MC5 weren´t the type of band who gave a fuck what others felt about them and that attitude is very much present in the material on "Kick Out the Jams". The band´s far left political ties and anti-establishment lyrics only further enhances the feeling that these guys were rebels and meant business. And that´s to a point where some of the talking between the songs is close to sounding like a political rally. But the politics out of the way "Kick Out the Jams" is ultimately just a filthy, loud, sweaty and distorted hard rock album that went just a bit further than most rock albums released around the same time. In addition to some of the energetic hard rocking tracks like "Ramblin' Rose", "Kick Out the Jams" and "Rocket Reducer N°62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)", the album also features the heavy blues cover of John Lee Hooker´s "Motor City is Burning" and the closing sonic experiment "Starship". The latter is the only time during "Kick Out the Jams", where I think the album loses it´s breath and becomes a bit tedious. Back in 1968 - 1969 this kind of experiment was probably considered bold and maybe even mindblowing to some people, but noisy sound collages like this one have a tendency to become tiresome after only a few spins. Quite frankly I always skip this one.

The sound production is raw, distorted and so "live" that you can almost feel the presence of the audience and smell the sweat, smoke and beer in the venue. I doubt if there are any overdubs on the album, this really does sound like the "real" thing.

Compared to their contemporaries in The Stooges and their more nihilistic ways, MC5 almost come off as gentle and today their outspoken far left wing views also come off as more humourous than they were originally intented, but "Kick Out the Jams" is still one hell of a raw and filthy hard rock live album. It´s the kind of album that you´ll remember long after it´s over. Despite the tedious nature of "Starship" which takes up about 8 minutes of the playing time, I still think a 4 star (80%) rating is warranted. A true classic this one.

UMUR As the title suggests, "Queen II" is the 2nd full-length studio album by UK rock act Queen. The album was released through Parlophone/Elektra in March 1974.

The music on the album sits somewhere between theatrical rock, progressive rock and hard rock. A really eclectic mix of music styles and ideas. The musicianship is outstanding throughout the album. Convincing and adventurous instrumental delivery by all involved and "out of this world" vocals by lead vocalist Freddie Mercury. His lead vocals are flat out fantastic, but it´s the multi layered harmony vocals that really put the icing on the cake. The only other group I can think of who did something just nearly as flamboyant and challenging around the same time is 10cc (I guess I should mention Gentle Giant too). When you add to that a powerful organic sound production and very well written compositions such as "Father to Son", "White Queen (As it Began)", "Ogre Battle", "The March of the Black Queen" and "Seven Seas of Rhye" it all come together nicely and form a rare and unique musical experience. The Roger Taylor led "The Loser in the End" is a real hard rocker and somewhat different from the other material on the album, but it´s a real treat to my ears.

While I enjoyed the debut album by Queen, that album completely pales in comparison with "Queen II". "Queen II" has a great flow and a vision, a musical red thread so to speak. If you like your rock delivered with a theatrical paatos and a progressive edge "Queen II" is a great release and I think a 4 - 4.5 star (85%) rating is fully deserved.

Bmiler One of those albums that just won't let up the whole way through. Usually I shy at the thought of a "supergroup", a collection of well-established musicians coming together, but then giving you something like Asia. Not with the case of Captain Beyond, with Rod Evans from Deep Purple Mk. I, Lee Dorman from Iron Butterfly (including In-a-Gadda-da-Vida), Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt from Iron Butterfly (on Metamorphosis), and Bobby Caldwell, a session musician who played for Johnny Winter, amongst others.

Apparently Duane Allman recommended the band to Capricorn Records. The album was released with a lenticular cover, kinda like the Stones' Their Satanic Majesties Request, or the special edition version of Opeth's Heritage. Not like the Southern Rock you might associate this label with. What you have is just some really unbelievable hard rock, lots of great guitar playing, the occasional psychedelic and space rock overtones, even a touch of Southern Rock (more of the bluesy variety than the country-influenced variety). The music segues into each other, so there is no interruption (aside from flipping over sides if you own the LP). Oh yeah, if you were put off by Rod Evans' "cabaret" singing in Purple Mk. I, you'll be shocked at the bluesy/hard rock approach he does here. You can guess that had he sung like that in Purple Mk. I, he would have received greater respect. It's hard for me to pick favorites, but "Raging River of Fear" has a bit of a Cream-like feel, because the vocals remind me of Jack Bruce. It's an album you gotta hear to believe!

Bmiler First studio album with Roger Glover and Ian Gillan (they already released a live album with orchestra with this same lineup with Concerto for Group and Orchestra, an experiment that lead to mixed reaction). To many people, the departure of Rod Evans was no huge loss, as many felt he sounded more at home with cabaret than in hard rock. On the other hand, those accused him of that should go listen to the first Captain Beyond album from 1972, which features his vocals in a surprisingly bluesy/hard rock style. Much of the psychedelia of previous albums are now gone, and they totally gave up on covers, showing they are now confident writing their own material.

And with "Speed King", you can tell they were ready to rock. It was so much more in your face. Great guitar riffs from Ritchie Blackmore, and vocals from Gillan that are much more suited for this kind of music. Check out that nice organ solo for Jon Lord! "Bloodsucker" is another in your face piece, while "Child in Time" is more in prog rock territory, although they rock out. This song created some controversy with San Francisco psychedelic band It's a Beautiful Day, as the song partially borrowed from "Bombay Calling" (this was on the same, self-entitled album in 1969 that featured the hit "White Bird"). It's a Beautiful Day took revenge on Purple by recording "Don & Dewey" on their next album, Marrying Maiden (1970) which bears more than a passing resemblance towards "Wring That Neck" off The Book of Taleisyn. I guess better that, than lawsuits. Then the rest of the album is back into rocking territory. Unlike Machine Head, this album don't feature any song familiar to the regular FM rock radio listener (nothing like "Smoke on the Water" here), but don't let that put you off. On the other hand, you like Purple but felt Machine Head was a tad overexposed, you'll probably like In Rock better. Regardless all hard rock and metal fans need this album!

UMUR "Queen" is the self-titled debut full-length studio album by UK rock/hard rock act Queen. The album was released through EMI (UK) and Elektra Records (US) in July 1973.

One of the things I noticed upon first listen was the contagious energy and great musicianship on the album. The energy level is very well examplified by the opening track "Keep Yourself Alive" but most tracks have a great energy level (just take a listen to the Roger Taylor led "Modern Times Rock & Roll"). Queen are very skilled musicians and it´s apparent already this early in their career. The vocals by Freddie Mercury are strong and distinct. The music is pretty hard rocking but there are more sensitive sections in the songs too. While the basic instrumentation is bass, guitar and drums there are also piano on the album which at times gives the music a grander and more epic sound. A song like "My Fairy King" is an example of that. The music borders progressive rock on several occasions but isn´t really that. It´s more an epic form of hard rock. The production is powerful and relatively raw.

Queen is a good debut album and if the songs had stood out a bit more I would probably have given a 4 star rating but there are not enough highlight here to warrant that IMO. a 3.5 star (70%) rating is well deserved though and all in all this is a very impressive debut album by a now legendary band.

Warthur When the first track on the legendarily confrontational Stooges' long-awaited reunion album is called "Trollin'", it's hard not to raise an eyebrow. Iggy Pop sings in the track in question about how "Rock critics wouldn't like this at all", and it's hard not to take that as a direct admission that as far as a followup to the band's legendary proto-punk releases at the dawn of the 1970s goes The Weirdness simply isn't up to scratch.

On albums such as Raw Power and (especially) the incredible Fun House the Stooges sounded like nothing anyone had heard before, and precious little that has come since; on The Weirdness, they sound like any other third-rate garage band. In fact, the closest point of comparison is Skull Ring, Iggy Pop's preceding solo album (on which the Stooges reunion first manifested), a piece which showed a similar total lack of good ideas. In short, I am left with the profound impression that Iggy got the Stooges back together simply because he ran out of better ideas, not because there was any material worthy of the band's illustrious past for them to perform.

Bmiler Birth Control followed Operation with Hoodoo Man. This time they moved to a much bigger label, CBS. Their previous album was on the very unlikely Ohr label, a label you associate with the early stuff of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, plus Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Duul (not Amon Duul II), Mythos, Floh de Cologne, and so on. Beside there was a lot of controversy surrounding Rolf Ulrich Kaiser, the owner of this label (as well as Pilz, and Ohr's successor labels, Die Kosmische Kurier and Kosmische Musik), particularly regarding the Cosmic Jokers.

Hoodoo Man proves, once again that these guys can rock! Just take a look at "Buy", the band attacking mindless consumerism. It's hard to believe something recorded in 1972 can hold so much relevance to this day, especially here in America. I also love that synth solo. "Suicide" is a nice jazzy piece, with electric piano. This might have more in common with jazz-leaning prog (the band often leaned towards prog to begin with, and Plastic People and Backdoor Possibilities are very much prog). "Get Down to Your Fate" is another that rocks, really love those organ riffs. "Gamma Ray" has a more funky feel to it, with the organ playing. Apparently it was released as a single and became a hit. "Hoodoo Man" is a more complex piece, still heavy but with prog leanings, while the last piece is an instrumental jam, with a famous Scottish bagpipe song played on synth at the end. There's some Scotsman named George MacKnickerick credited to playing bagpipes, but no real bagpipes to be found here.

For those who love early '70s hard rock, who don't mind the occasional prog leanings, you really can't go wrong here.

Bmiler Now this is an odd album to be having on the Ohr label. The Ohr label was much better known for all the great Krautrock on that label: Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, Guru Guru, Amon Duul (not Amon Duul II), Mythos, Klaus Schulze, etc. So to have a hard rock band that's more in common with Deep Purple or Uriah Heep is sure strange company. Many Krautrock fans were obviously disappointed with Birth Control, but then this isn't Tangerine Dream's Zeit either. But for all you fans of early '70s hard rock, you can't go wrong with Operation, Birth Control's second album. Much of the '60s psychedelia of their debut album had vanished for a more rocking affair. Just check out these songs: "Stop Little Lady", "Just Before the Sun Will Rise" and "Pandemonium". The Vietnam War was raging, and was the cause of big problems in America, even the Germans were aware what was going on and they addressed it on "The Work is Done". "Let Us Do It Now" seems like a strange including. It's like if you tagged "April" at the end of Deep Purple's In Rock. This is a much more orchestrated number with psychedelic overtones. It's a nice piece still the same.

The cover was a center of controversy, showing a grasshopper eating babies, with Pope Paul VI cheering the insect on. The album cover was banned in many countries, forcing other countries to use a different cover (and sometimes calling it just Birth Control, no relation to their 1970 debut).

It's little surprise that the quickly jump ship to a much bigger label, CBS. This album has some fantastic material and I highly recommend it.

Bmiler Just to let you know I'm only familiar with the slightly later version that included John Du Cann's involvement. Apparently when Du Cann joined the group, they decided to redo their debut album by including his guitar work, and on "Friday the 13th" his vocals. The true original featured their cover of John Mayall's "Broken Wings" in side two, while this later version had that song on side one (as well as a couple other songs switched). This John Du Cann version was meant for an American release, but that never happened, so instead it ended up as the second pressing on the B&C label. The true original would only have minimal guitar from bassist and vocalist Nick Graham (who would jump ship to Skin Alley), with of course, plenty of organ work from Vincent Crane.

Anyways, for all you ELP fans, this is the Atomic Rooster album with Carl Palmer's involvement. He had played with The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (who also featured Vincent Crane) on tour (but never recorded with them). I have to let you know that Nick Graham's vocals are an acquired taste. The album starts off with "Friday the 13th", a great opening piece. With the John Du Cann version, it could have easily belonged on Death Walks Behind You. "And So To Bed" is another favorite of mine, with lyrics regarding the band telling a groupie off ("You don't want me/you don't need me/all you need is sex with fame"). Then they get more bluesy with their cover of John Mayall's "Broken Wings" then come with a killer instrumental piece, "Before Tomorrow". This song made you wished Carl Palmer would have stayed in Atomic Rooster. "Winter" is a rather mellow piece, with (I believe) Vincent Crane handling the vocals. They even go a bit in Jethro Tull territory with flute from Nick Graham.

Although their classic is their next album, Death Walks Behind You, you still want this album as this is a fine example of organ driven proto-metal, the kind Purple, Heep and many others had also done often so well.

Bmiler I wouldn't call this metal, but the occult nature of this album is probably why this might be thought of as "black metal" but in reality, it's about as metal as Jethro Tull. In fact the music isn't too far off from Tull territory, especially from the flute playing. But unlike Tull, the group also used a saxophone (Clive Jones is responsible for all wind instruments here). The music is basically early '70s organ/sax/flute driven prog rock with Satanic themes in the songs. I find it an enjoyable album, but in mixed company I would not dare play this. "In Ancient Ways" is a nice opening piece, with acoustic guitars and sax. I really like the organ work from Zoot Taylor. "Come to the Sabbat" features some cool drum beats, plus that chant that goes, "Come, come, come to the Sabbath, come to the Sabbat, Satan's there". There's some orchestration that reminds me of David Palmer's orchestrations in Jethro Tull. I like that bolero beat in "Conjuration", while "Attack of the Demon" is another favorite of mine, about a sorcerer who is doomed to hell. The title track is the lengthiest piece on the album which includes some nice jazzy passages.

The content and their stage shows were a source of controversy, including a mock sacrifice. Many Christian priests tried to woo kids away from attending their concerts. I am a proud owner of Demons of the Night Gather to See Black Widow Live, which includes a bonus DVD from a 1970 German TV broadcast (I am really surprised German TV would air something as controversial as that in 1970), so I get to see what all the controversy is about. This controversy caused the band to drop their occult image, so none of their following albums have any Satanic themes.

So warning: it's not heavy, don't expect something on the lines of Black Sabbath, but if you like early British prog, you'll probably have no problem with it.

Bmiler Let me tell you this that I cannot stand the music of Billy Joel. In the 1970s and 1980s I've been inflicted by all that pop mush he inflicted everyone. You know the songs, "Uptown Girl", "Tell Her About It", "We Didn't Start the Fire", "River of Dreams", and so on. I never could imaged he'd so something as so radical as Attila. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This the same guy who did "Piano Man" three years later? It sure was, only his voice was recognizable. No piano here (although I suspect an electric piano was used on "California Flash"). If you thought those organ-dominated hard rock groups like Purple, Heep, Atomic Rooster, Quatermass, even early material from Birth Control rocked, Joel and his former Hassles bandmate, Jon Small, takes this format the the extreme. They don't even bother with a guitar, unlike those groups, instead Joel simply hooked a Hammond organ up through a Marshall amp (instead of a Leslie which is more traditional for Hammond users). Just get a load of these songs: "Revenge is Sweet", "Rollin' Home", "Tear This Castle Down", "Amplifier Fire" and so on. "California Flash" is about as close to typical Joel as you'll get here. I dig those silly lyrics. Of course Joel pretty much wished the Atila album never existed, he deemed it "psychedelic BS". But I never, in my life, dream of owning anything from Billy Joel, but with Attila I did and I'm glad I did. Who'd ever thought I'd be blown away by an album featuring an artist I detest? Yes many people won't like this, but I do. If you can find it on the cheap, go for it, you might be surprised.

UMUR "Toys in the Attic" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US hard rock act Aerosmith. The album was released through Columbia Records in April 1975. "Toys in the Attic" was a big commercial breakthrough for the band and it´s one of their best selling albums with 8 million copies sold in the US alone.

The music on the album is blues based hard rock and tracks like "Adam´s Apple" and "Big Ten Inch Record" follow that formula closely. The closing power ballad "You See Me Crying", which features a string arrangement is one of the tracks on the album that doesn´t follow the bluesy hard rock formula, but if you listen closely to tracks like "Uncle Salty" and "Sweet Emotion" they also stick out. While all tracks are well played, well composed and well produced it´s "Walk this Way" that stands out the most to me. It´s a sweaty, powerful and groovy hard rock track that just kicks ass in any way possible. Unfortunately it´s the only track on the album that makes my blood boil wildly. The rest is above standard hard rock and a nice listen, but that´s it.

"Toys in the Attic" is overall an enjoyable hard rock album, but I can´t say I would have guessed that it´s widely considered a hard rock classic if I didn´t know beforehand. For that there are simply not enough really remarkable songs on the album. Still a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

bartosso My next non-review is about my first musical thrills. Led Zeppelin's albums III and IV are two peaks of band's output and one of the best rock albums ever created, period. Their innovative, progressive approach to rhythm'n'blues and folk remains fascinating despite passing years and I just can't help but wonder: how was it possible to create such masterpieces one after another? At this point the reason behind this text becomes obvious - I'm not going to tell you why this stuff is amazing. There is music that just can't be described with words and given my deep attachment to Zeppelin's output - rooted in childhood which makes being objective even more difficult - I won't try to do it. I just want to express my admiration for this mature, timeless and unique masterpiece of hard rock/rhythm'n'blues. Everyone should listen to it before walking up stairway to heaven.

Kingcrimsonprog Rocka Rolla is probably an album that you’ve heard a lot about already if you are even a casual fan of Judas Priest. It was the band’s debut studio album, recorded live-in-the-studio in 1974 and released to little acclaim on the small label Gull Records. The band rarely ever played anything off of it live for decades.

The album has been issued dozens of times with slightly different mastering (some fans favour the louder version), different track listings, different artwork and occasionally even under a different name. Sometimes an early version of the Joan Baez cover track ‘Diamonds And Rust’ is included as a bonus track.

As a rule, you probably won’t want to make this your first Judas Priest purchase. A lot of Judas Priest fans don’t like this album and for that reason alone you shouldn’t really try it out until you are fully invested in Judas Priest already or risk missing out on dozens of great records just by being scared off by this.

The music on the album is a mixture of classic blues based rock music and a little touch of progressive rock influence, with some hints of the band’s future definitive Heavy Metal sound but never any full out all-metal tracks.

Songs like the eight-minute ‘Run Of The Mill’ contain an almost Animals era Pink Floyd sound at times and ‘Dying To Meet You’ contains the sort of Progged-Up Blues feel of the first three Jethro Tull albums. If you like this sort of music as I do then you’ll probably find it an interesting addition to the Judas Priest collection that shows the band in a different light than you are used to.

If you hate the sort of music that British Prog Rock bands were putting out in the 1970s, only ever listen to heavy music and find that your favourite Judas Priest album was Painkiller then Rocka Rolla may not be something that you are likely to fall in love with and should either try before you buy or avoid altogether.

Of course, there are a few tracks on the album that are hard enough rock such as ‘Hero Hero,’ ‘Never Satisfied’ and especially ‘Cheater’ all of which are good but ultimately still won’t be enough to win the bigger doubters over. Even these harder moments aren’t completely metal anyway, they are just the closest thing to it on this early album.

Additionally, It has been speculated in the past that Rocka Rolla might have been a better album if the band were allowed enough time and money to record it properly and if the purportedly long and epic track ‘Caviar And Meths’ wasn’t shortened from its intended 14-minute duration to a brief two minutes.

As it stands however, ‘Caviar And Meths’ simply is two minutes and the production job simply is cheap and live, so you have to accept the album on those terms if you are going to like it and there’s not much you could do to change that.

Overall, your opinion of the album will largely depend on whether or not you are able to forgive how different it is from their more famous albums, and how much you like Blues Rock and Prog Rock. It may also depend on the mastering job and track order of the particular copy you get.

If you can already tell that you’ll hate it then feel free to ignore it and pretend that the band’s first album was Sad Wings Of Destiny. If however you think you are going to be generally receptive to it, intrigued by the idea of Rob Halford’s early vocal performances, of hearing KK and Glen’s guitars doing something totally different and of a raw but potentially charming production job, then I’d say go for it. It is worth checking out and isn’t nearly as bad as you may have heard about.

Sheavy The Heeps second album is another great, early Heavy Guitar and Organ/Keyboard driven album. Uriah Heeps ability to come up with great heavy rocking songs is present with the especially epic Bird Of Prey, and the just as strong, Time To Live. They also created two of my favorite softer Heep songs with The Park and the especially epic, chilling and Lady In Black, which is firmly and easily in my top 3 fav Heep songs. The song High Priestess switches between a softer sound and a heavy-ern more rocking sound, which features some great guitar work by the severly underrated Mick Box. The closing sixteen minute song, Salisbury, is unlike any other Uriah Heep song ever, with it's stunningly beautiful, and at times very dark, backing brass ection. The song is a tour-de-force for all the members of the band, with some more great guitar work from Mick Box, and some really strong bass playing from Paul Newton.

All in all, this is a masterpiece from a band that never truly got as much recognition as similar bands in the Heavy Prog vein. Essential.

UMUR "Live at Last" is the first live album released by British heavy metal act Black Sabbath. Released through NEMS Enterprises in July 1980 after Ozzy Osbourne had left the band (or rather had been kicked out) but with recordings from the 1973 tour this live album release was not received well by, the then new incarnation, of Black Sabbath with Dio on vocals. However for the fans of Ozzy Osbourne era Black Sabbath it was a long overdue opportunity to listen to some live recordings by the band.

The song selection is pretty natural when you consider that Black Sabbath were touring in support of "Volume four (1972)" and most songs come from this album (three out of nine and an excerpt of "Supernaut" in the "Wicked World" jam section). The debut album is represented by "Wicked World" (which was only featured on the US release of the debut), "Paranoid (1970)" by "War Pigs", "Master of Reality (1971)" by "Sweet Leaf", "Embryo/Children of the Grave" and an excerpt of "Into the Void". In addition to that there´s also a song ("Killing Yourself to Live") from the then yet unreleased 5th full-length studio album by Black Sabbath which would be titled "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)". The version of "Wicked World" is 18:59 minutes long and includes loads of improvised guitar soloing by Tony Iommi, a drum solo by Bill Ward and quite surprisingly (at least to me who´s never seen them live) a jazz rock section. Maybe another desperate attempt by Tony Iommi to show the critics that there was more to Black Sabbath than just heavy riffs? In this case the attempt is actually quite successful to my ears and a nice variation in the set.

The performance is good and even though Ozzy Osbourne doesn´t always hit the right notes he´s as enthusiastic as ever and the phrase: "We Love You" is more than once during the set communicated to the audience. I wouldn´t call the overall performance by the band excellent or wildly inspired though and the rather bad sound quality doesn´t really help on my impression either. It might be stretching it a bit but the production could be catagorized as a good bootleg sound quality.

"Live at Last" is not an essential listening experience neither for fans nor for the casual listener IMO. But it is a pretty good yet raw and unpolished live album and especially for fans of Ozzy Osbourne era Black Sabbath there are much to enjoy here. 3 stars (60%) are deserved.

The Truth An odd record, yeah, but it's fun to listen to when you think of what it eventually gave birth to.

Pretties For You, the Alice Cooper band's first record, is at times childish but it never fails to stun every once in awhile. Sure there are some really duds Living, but there are truly a bunch of psychedelic tunes that leave a nice impression on the listener. These include Levity Ball, Changing Arranging and (eventually re-recorded as Elected) Reflected. Heck, even the almost satirically dramatic intro the record Titanic Overture is a fun song.

There are some really great moments on Pretties For You and although better things are yet to come, it should not be ignored. It shows an Alice Cooper that was never fully seen again, only remnants of it.

Zappa's influence on their tripped-out noodling is apparent which makes it entertaining to say the least. The only thing that's really missing is a performance of Nobody Likes Me.

Warthur An embarrassment of riches, the Great Deceiver box set - whether bought in its original format or as two 2-CD sets - is a treasuring of King Crimson live material ranging from the wake of Larks' Tongues In Aspic to the cusp of Red. The set opens with a full show - a Providence set from 1974, from which the version of 21st Century Schizoid Man was extracted for use on the USA version. I actually prefer the sound here to the one on USA, since the Eddie Jobson overdubs on that one seemed to have been calculated to bring the track closer to its original studio version, whereas here the aura is more definitively of the mid-70s unit.

The rest of the set contains extracts from other shows of varying sizes - some quite substantial, some only snippets. On the whole, I'm not going to give this essential rating simply because I don't think it is essential through and through - shows and tapes inevitably vary in quality, after all, though the cream of the crop is represented here, and furthermore I suspect the package here presents rather more live King Crimson than most people will ever need. I still think that the essential Crimson live album from this era of the band has to be the incomparable Night Watch, which ought to be your first stop in any exploration of live Crimson; this one is great value, but is really for those who simply cannot get enough of them Larks' Tongues.

Warthur Purists might sniff at the overdubs provided by Eddie Jobson - who was never even in any of the King Crimson lineups of the 1970s - to some tracks on this live album, but it's still an exciting document of the Larks'-to-Red-era version of the band. More or less all the tracks come from Larks' Tongues In Aspic or Starless and Bible Black, with an early version of Starless at the end if you have the expanded remaster. Of the major live releases of this iteration of the band, it obviously isn't as expansive as The Great Deceiver; nor does the show here seem to be quite as energetic or interesting as the one captured on The Night Watch, which features more improvisations than this one and has a more frenzied rendition of 21st Century Schizoid Man (this time around the band just do a fairly close cover of the original rather than zooming off on their own unique tangent as in Night Watch).

Still, if you already have those two and like them, it comes heartily recommended - there's a teensy bit of overlap between this set and the shows collected on The Great Deceiver, but not so much as to render the album irrelevant. And when it came out in the mid-1970s it must have been a godsend for Crimson fans to finally have a decent-quality live album as opposed to the miserable Earthbound.

Warthur It's hard to believe today that Earthbound was the first King Crimson live album to see an official release. Today, of course, we have available to us a whole wealth of archival live material from more or less every lineup of King Crimson that ever undertook a tour - indeed, 2002's Ladies of the Road comes from the same tour as this one, and has a vastly superior sound quality. Thus, if Earthbound was a baffling, inessential, and controversial release when it first came out in 1972, here in 2011 it's just a complete embarrassment.

The major problem with Earthbound is, of course, the recording quality. Why the band's label thought this botched recording to cassette (1972-quality cassette, at that) would ever be acceptable for mass release is beyond me, but there you go. On top of that, I *think* that the performances captured on this muzzy, horribly mixed recording are quite sub-par: there's a version of 20th Century Schizoid Man in which the instrumental soloing sections make it quite clear that only two of the band members (Mel Collins and, of course, the honourable Robert Fripp) even remotely possess the chops of the 1969 lineup, a similarly uninteresting performance of Groon, a passable (though still ruined by the recording quality) stab at The Sailor's Tale, and two new jams (Peoria and Earthbound) which consist of Boz boringly scatting into the microphone whilst the band make a fumbling and altogether half- hearted attempt at something resembling funk, both of which are unbearable.

I say I "think" the performances are sub-par - I can't say for sure because the recording quality is so bad I could easily imagine that any good there may have been in these renditions has been washed out by the tape recording. Trust me, the sound quality is terrible, to the point where it sounds like half the album was recorded in the next room away from where the band were playing. And in this day and age, there is no earthly reason why anyone who wasn't a completely uncritical King Crimson fan should feel obliged to track Earthbound down. When one considers all the many, many alternative live Crimson releases - every single one of which is superior to this one - the fact that the thing actually got reissued from time to time is completely baffling. It's a horribly recorded record of below average performances from a comparatively unimportant lineup of King Crimson.

Get USA, get Absent Friends, get the Great Deceiver box, get the Projekts material, get Epitaph, get Ladies of the Road, and get all the other King Crimson live material you could ever want in the world before you even consider wasting a scrap of your money on this one. As far as King Crimson's discography goes, this is as close as it gets to the bottom of the barrel unless you're willing to dabble in bootlegs - and most bootlegs will sound better than this turkey.

Warthur Robert Fripp's decision to bring King Crimson to a close following this album (at least until it regenerated Doctor Who style into the avant-New Wave beast of the 1980s) was baffling at the time to those around him - not least remaining band members John Wetton and Bill Bruford. But I think with the more time passes, the more the decision looks like a stroke of genius. Fripp's predictions about the "dinosaurs" of rock music coming to a bad end turned out to be all too true when the punk revolution happened.

Sure, we might bemoan the lack of respect given to musicianship and technical accomplishment during the white heat of punk, but both of those important things crept back into rock afterwards, and the DIY ethos of the punks - which held that anyone could and should be able to put together a band - recalls Fripp's own belief that it would be "small, mobile, intelligent units" that survived after the fall of the dinosaurs. And it has to be said that Fripp chose precisely the moment to cash his chips, selling up just as the peak of prog's mainstream success was passing by. This decision saved King Crimson from the humiliating fate of many of their contemporaries in the late 1970s or early 1980s - not for them the commercial pandering of 90125-era Yes, or Invisible Touch-era Genesis, or Gentle Giant's last three albums. Fripp's decision saved the band from a situation in which they would have to choose between their musical integrity and commercial success; his subsequent revivals of King Crimson have come about because he had a sound that needed to come out under the KC name, not in response to crass commercial considerations.

Robert's predictions about the music industry as a whole took longer to come true, but the dawning of the Internet age and their shambolic response to it also appears to have proved Fripp right. The fact is that if you want to make experimental, cutting-edge, avant-garde progressive music, you're much better off following the mobile unit approach, and whilst Fripp might have arrived at these realisations through a somewhat cranky route, it's hard to deny that his predictions were right - and came years before anyone else saw it, with the possible exception of Peter Hammill (as seen on Nadir's Big Chance).

It was against this background that Red was produced - with Fripp undergoing this enormous personal change, having the unintended and beneficial side effect of Fripp exerting less control over the recording process which he had previously been inclined to. Not that he needed to; it's clear on here that his collaborators are as much in tune with what needs to be accomplished on the record as he is. A classic from beginning to end, from the furious instrumental Red to the hauntingly beautiful Starless (which others have pointed out is rather like a potted history of the band from 1969 to 1974 in its musical structure), Red more than any other album from the 1973-1974 lineup of King Crimson showcases a powerful vision of the future of music, one which in some respects we still haven't caught up to. In the Court of the Crimson King set the blueprint for most of the progressive rock scene, particularly the more symphonic end of it. Red, quite simply, is the peak of the form. There have been new albums since then that have added their own spin to the genre, but I can think of precious few that reach this level of accomplishment.

Warthur After the end of the Islands tour, Robert Fripp was once again left with the task of reconstructing King Crimson's lineup from scratch. However, rather than continue down the path of trying to produce a symphonic followup worthy of In the Court of the Crimson King, Fripp took the more daring approach: he wouldn't just create a new lineup, he'd break down and rebuild what it meant to be King Crimson from the ground up.

In the Court of the Crimson King kickstarted a new genre of progressive rock and was immediately embraced by the prog community, who soon took its lessons to heart. Larks' Tongues In Aspic comes up with its own genre yet again, and decades later the rest of the prog world still hasn't caught up to it, except for perhaps a few bands right on the cutting edge of Heavy Prog or math rock/post-rock. With angular rhythms, avant-garde percussion, Bill Bruford unleashed to try out jazzy chops that had been suppressed in Yes, John Wetton providing the best vocals and basswork on a King Crimson album since Greg Lake left, David Cross adding a plaintive and enigmatic violin to the proceedings, and Fripp laying down some of the angriest and heaviest riffs seen on a rock album to date, the album introduces the mid-1970s Crimson lineup (around the rock-solid core of Wetton, Fripp and Bruford) with a true tour de force.

Easily the best King Crimson album since their debut, this is the album which reinvented the band, and in doing so reinvented rock music altogether, and it still yields secrets with repeated listens to this day. If you only like symphonic prog and have no love for the heavier, more avant-garde, or even (dare I say it) RIO-ish end of prog, maybe this isn't for you, but otherwise if you like King Crimson, you need this album. Like In the Court of the Crimson King and Discipline, it's one of the key puzzle pieces that's essential to putting the picture together; if you don't taste the Aspic, you don't know King Crimson.

Warthur Sporting a medievally-flavoured cover that might fool the unwary listener into thinking this is King Crimson's answer to Genesis's Trespass, Lizard is instead a jazzy development of the sound that coalesced on In the Wake of Poseidon. The contributions of Graham Haskell are much-lauded, though I think Boz Boorer did a better job of singing in a broadly comparable style on Islands. Indeed, the friction between Haskell, Fripp, and the other musicians involved in the album are the stuff of legend, and this was yet one more Crimson album born out of confusion and conflict within the lineup.

The album's crown jewel is the sidelong epic Lizard, which features a wide range of instrumental flavours, superior musicianship and compositional chops when compared with the side one material, and a marvellous guest appearance from Jon Anderson, capturing Anderson's vocal talents just as he hit on his classic style (this album being recorded between Yes recording Time and a Word and The Yes Album). The material on the first side of the album, meanwhile, is somewhat less interesting; Lady of the Dancing Waters is yet another quiet tune in a similar vein to Cadence and Cascade or I Talk to the Wind, and the diminishing returns are really beginning to show at this point, whilst the other three don't quite succeed in integrating the jazzy playing into the Crimson sound. (It doesn't help that Happy Family is a whimsical novelty song about the breakup of the Beatles, and if there's one area Fripp and Sinfield aren't so strong in it's whimsical novelty.) Two stars for the first side, four for the second.

Warthur So many words have been written on the merits of this album, so I'll refrain from getting too deep into them and instead address what is often cited as the album's one flaw: Moonchild, the first song on the second side, which begins unusually gently given the tone of the rest of the album (loud, paranoid, bombastic, sweeping, dramatic, and all the other words that have been applied to it...) and ends up seemingly losing its way in a long quiet section of freeform improvisation which lasts for around 9 minutes or so. (Indeed, in the most recent round of remasters this section was shortened). Taken on its own, the song is highly dissatisfying, but taken as a prelude to the spine-tingling album closer of In the Court of the Crimson King I actually think the free-playing segment works quite well, the improvisation coming together into a gentle but foreboding atmosphere before the first chords of In the Court blare forth.

So, I will join with the masses in giving this one five stars, even though some of the individual songs might only be three star compositions, because this is one of those very few albums which you can say are greater than the sum of their parts.

UMUR "Raw Power" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US hard rock act The Stooges. The album was released through Columbia Records in February 1973. After the original Stooges lineup broke up after the release of their 2nd album "Fun House (1970)", Iggy Pop and guitarist James Williamson relocated to London after meeting David Bowie, who helped them get a deal with Columbia Records. After unsuccessfully searching for a bassist and a drummer, Pop and Williamson asked original Stooges members Scott and Ron Asheton to fly over to London and become members of the band again. Ron Asheton who had originally been the band´s guitarist, switched to bass. The band were still completely out there on drugs though and after/during touring in support of the album The Stooges split for a second time.

While the cover artwork depicts Iggy Pop in a sort of glam outfit, the music on "Raw Power" is anything but glam influenced. This is filthy and raw rock´n´roll delivered in an absolutely caustic fashion. Highly aggressive and adrenaline pumped, it´s no wonder "Raw Power" is almost universally hailed as one of the seminal proto punk albums. Iggy Pop sounds positively mad on the album. One moment on the verge of an emotional breakdown and the next commanding and aggressive. I don´t know if he didn´t shoot up for a couple of days before recording the album, but this sounds almost scary at times. Tracks like "Search and Destroy", "You're Pretty Face Is Going To Hell(Hard To Beat)" and the title track were definitely among the most aggressive sounding music released up until then. The band haven´t completely forgotten their jamming psychadelic past though and there are longer jamming type parts on the album too (and a couple of eerie and dark power ballads in "Gimme Danger" and "I Need Somebody"), but the tracks are generally shorter and more edgy than the earlier material by the band. The feeling that the music threatens to beat you to a pulp is not exactly diminished by the ultra raw sound production. If anyone thought the sound on the first two albums was raw, take a listen to this one.

Ultimately "Raw Power" is not the most consistent album and there are tracks that aren´t as great as the best ones on the album, but when the band hit the right notes, they do it with such conviction and fierce energy, that I´m left completely in awe. It´s not an easy album to rate but a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating isn´t all wrong.

bartosso "Sister, I implore you, take him by the hand!"

Really, it's not going to be a review. It's a bit awkward to me, humble collaborator, to review this incredible album, an album I was listening to as a six-year-old with a flush on my cheeks. I'm pretty sure most of you have already listened to it, or at least heard the cult song written as a tribute to the immigrant (or the emigrant, it depends on the GDP of your country). You have not? Well, people, this is not the most popular Led Zeppelin album, but the most important for sure. With the first two albums, the band presented themselves as highly talented yet not really extraordinary hard-rock band. However, with their third album they divided the critics. To hell with them! To me, LED ZEPPELIN III inspired several generations of eclectic rock musicians, changed their approach to combining metal with folk music and influenced their musical sensitivity. Sounds awesome? Yes, just like the album!

Stephen TRAPEZE is a very unique band. Some called it a LED ZEPPELIN pier. I don't argue with that as I've heard the Zep touch indeed, but Glenn Hughes brought his funky groove too and I heard some doom/bluesy element of BLACK SABBATH. 'Medusa' is my introductory record to the band, recommended by a close friend who really dug classic rock and he said this is a must try. After couple of spins, I must say, it's a good album but not sure whether it can match any of the first four LED ZEPPELIN albums.

'Black Cloud' is a massive opener, I can safely say this is the best song they made here and good choice of putting it as the first track. 'Jury' is slow and very BLACK SABBATH to these ears. However, I found it a bit repetitive with the 8-minutes duration, but the song itself is dynamic and lively, I like it too. 'Your Love Is Alright' puts Hughes groove into life, a good one and better than the next track, 'Touch My Life'.

'Seafull' is a beautiful bluesy ballad and I was told that this song is quite famous in Indonesia back in the 70s. It was featured in a slow rock compilation and many older folks knew this band from this song. The last two songs are okay but don't have the appeal like the first two. All in all, a good record, I gave this 75%, and maybe this don't reflect the true score as I'm only a casual fan of classic rock, but yeah good record.

AtomicCrimsonRush Deep Purple's History Making Live Masterpiece.

Deep Purple's "Made in Japan" is one of the all time greatest immortal live albums in rock history. It features the band at their brilliant best and promoting their masterpiece albums "In Rock" and "Machine Head", both milestones in themselves. The lineup is the infamous Deep Purple lineup that has become rock legend; featuring on vocals the air raid sirens of high octave metal hero Ian Gillan, the pounding drums of Ian Paice, the guitar wizardry of Ritchie Blackmore, the keyboard magician Jon Lord and the wonderful Roger Glover, bass guitarist extraordinaire. The live performance features the best of the band to this point and these lengthy versions are even better than the studio renditions.

The album hits the mark with a rocking start with the hard driving 'Highway Star', the kid sister of 'Speed King'. The dynamic interplay of guitar and organ is wonderful and draws the listener in as it builds into the first verse. "Nobody Gonna Take My Car, I'm Gonna Race It To The Ground, Nobody Gonna Beat My Car, It's Gonna Break The Speed Of Sound" The lyrics embody the essence of the revhead and live Gillan is able to use his power vocals to full effect. But it's all about the riffs for this band and Blackmore delivers everytime; the true metal progenitor of lead guitar finesse, becoming a guitar hero with this album.

'Child In Time' is next running or a whopping 12 minutes. The song is a masterpiece, but live it surpasses even the album version. Gillan explodes on vocals reaching ear splitting notes after a gentle start. The song builds into a paroxysm of thunderous guitar riffs and Lord's keyboards are incredible. It builds into heavier sections with massive keyboard sweeps and fret melting lead guitar. An amazing wall of sound is generated with the rhythm machine of Paice and Glover. Eventually it settles into a serene passage until the finale where all members of the band blaze away and lift off into the stratosphere with crunching chord changes and a freak out of shattering noise as Gillan moans the pangs of child birth; perhaps it represents the birth of heavy metal, and the band deliver.

'Smoke On The Water' follows, beginning with a terrific variation of the opening classic riff. It is the most recognizable riff in rock history that every guitarist knows. The actual thematic content is fascinating about how a "stupid with a flare gun" burned down the recording studio of Frank Zappa and the Mothers in Montreux. Now the event is immortalised forever in song. This will perhaps remain the all time greatest Deep Purple song especially due to the 7 note chord riff. The live version is sensational with a scorching lead break and Lord's shimmering keyboard attack.

'The Mule' follows next with a lengthy instrumental break, and the song runs out to 9 ½ minutes in length. Ian Paice drums up a storm on his Ludwig kit soloing for quite some time. His precision drumming and atmospheric arrangement has become a benchmark for drummers worldwide.

'Strange Kind Of Woman' is also lengthy at 10 minutes and is great to hear as it was one of the biggest singles or the group not available on studio vinyl during this time. It was a chance for the band to kick back and groove along to a pleasing riff. The section where Gillan imitates Blackmore's guitar is often quoted as a master stroke and was influential to many bands to follow. It sounds as though Blackmore was trying to trick Gillan but they trade off perfectly and it is amusing and part of the experience of the live set, reminiscent of Plant and Page of Led Zeppelin.

'Lazy' is a 10 ½ minute opus with tons of keyboard soloing and Blackmore insane on bluesy guitar. It is a terrific lengthy jamming track about a dude so lazy he just stays in bed. Lord is awe inspiring on the organ solo and it really showcases his skill.

'Space Truckin'' follows and clocks in at a mammoth 20 minutes. It is another of the quintessential DP tracks. The power riffs and grinding organ absolutely slam to the wall. The lengthy version originally took up an entire side of the double vinyl album. It features huge spacey solos with Jon Lord's Hammond and his experimental ring modulator sounds. He unleashes a furious tirade of powerful organ stabs as Glover maintains a consistent bassline with Paice backing on drums. The session lasts for almost 15 minutes and is technical and progressive while maintaining strong rock rhythms. The Hammond solo is based on 'Mandrake Root' from the early DP albums.

"Made In Japan" is a classic masterpiece that is one of the most famous live albums in history. Every track is killer and the band are at the peak of their powers. It is a testament of the greatness of Deep Purple in the early years of proto-metal and the progressive nuances throughout, with intricate time sig changes and lengthy jamming solos, make it the ultimate live album of 1972.

AtomicCrimsonRush Deep Purple's "Fireball" is a very good followup to their masterpiece "In Rock". It features some proto metal classics such as the hard rocking title with breakneck rhythms and excellent guitar riffs of Blackmore. Ian Paice is an incredible drummer and he really lets rip on this album. 'No, No, No' is memorable for the high pitched vocals of Ian Gillan, and killer guitar riffing. 'Demon's Eye' is one of my favourite with pulsating rhythm and unforgettable riffs. It has a funkadelic beat and amazing keyboard from Jon Lord. 'Anyone's Daughter' is a throwaway but is surprisingly jazzy.

'The Mule' has oriental influences and crazy drumming from Paice. 'Fools' is next and really is a grower. At 8 minutes or so the track is the longest and features Blackmore fiddling about and too much organ, but its okay. The album ends with No One Came' with heavy rock elements and huge keyboard runs. Overall a decent album from legends of classic rock.

AtomicCrimsonRush Thanks to reviewers I was drawn to this album like a moth to a flame. Immediately I was dazzled by crunching riffs with heavy guitars and then amazing time changes locking into killer riffing with dirty guitar sounds and serious vocals. The time sigs changes so dramatically it is hard to keep up but it is such a delight to be treated to an obscurity like this hiding in the prog vaults. It begins with 'Dancing Madly Backwards (On a Sea of Air)' with all the time shifts and then blazes straight into 'Armworth' with Rod Evans' vocals, from Deep Purple, and hard rocking non stop rock rhythms.

The riffs are always prevalent and driving headlong to new half time feels and awesome instrumental breaks with the mind bending guitars of Rhino, from Iron Butterfly. His slide guitar work is absolutely psychedelic and atmospheric. Bobby Caldwell was a brilliant drummer and has a field day on percussion injecting timpani triplets and odd beats throughout. The bass of Lee Dorman is a constant pulse. 'Mesmerization Eclipse' is the first break into a different feel after the non stop opening suite of songs. There is another heavy riff and Deep Purple style vocals. They are much more progressive though, and once again the song reaks into several signatures, the band are brimming over with creativity and one never knows where they will go next, fast to slow to downright out of place, each meter is a pattern that locks on with that ever present heavy guitar. I didn't like the way this faded out slowly but immediately the next riff settles in on 'Raging River Of Fear'. This has a heavy bluesy feel, aggressive vocals and accomplished rhythm changes. The drums on this are incredible, constantly providing new tempos and fast paced beats and fills.

'Thousand Days Of Yesterday (Intro)' settles down the fury with quiet acoustic picking and gentle vocals. The harmonies are nice and the overall feel is melancholy to break away from the heaviness before and after. It doesn't last long as the next moment guitars crunch in and a fast tempo with forced vocals on 'Frozen Over'. The half time feel on this is astonishing injecting new metrics and it then changes completely in the next section. Nobody changes time sigs like Captain Beyond; so rapid and always appropriate. It fades into an accelerated acoustic rhythm on 'Thousand Days Of Yesterdays (Time Since Come & Gone)'.

A fantastic rhythm locks in and Rhino is dynamic in the lead break. It fades and hammering chords intro 'I Cant Feel Nothin (Part 1)'. The drums are dazzling along with another massive riff. The vocals are easy on the ears and close to the Bachman Turner Overdrive style. The music continues non stop with a suite of songs; 'As The Moon Speaks (To the Waves of the Sea)' a quiet acoustic piece of beauty with narrative vocals, 'Astral Lady', 'As The Moon Speaks (Return)' back to the pounding rock of 'I Cant Feel Nothin (Part 2)'.

What a fantastic heavy slice of heavy prog with an obscurity that should be unearthed and played often. A great find for any heavy prog fan and one to return to habitually.

AtomicCrimsonRush "Look at Yourself" features incredible heavy Hammond and guitar riffing excellence on one of Uriah Heep's most consistent albums. The front cover is a mirror that many who owned the vinyl would have spent hours watching the reflective surface shine patterns on the roof. The music on the album also reflects the band, the power of progressive symphonic meets heavy rock.

The title track, 'Look at Yourself' is a definitive rocker with trademark driving guitar and organ with a pounding bassline. Mick Box's lead break crunches with incredible staccato Hammond of Ken Hensley and phased guitar. The vocals of David Byron are excellent with a straight clean performance and vibrato. There are so many brilliant tracks on the album that many found their way to best of compilations and concerts. The first 3 are Uriah Heep at their best.

On 'I Wanna Be Free' the harmonies are terrific and the riff is patented crunching guitar blasts similar to 'Gypsy' and 'Lady In Black'. Another great track on the album.

'July Morning' is captivating with quiet passages of serenity and loud majestic music crescendos. The verses are a lighters-in-the-air sway-along melodic ballad, and this is balanced with an outbreak of Hensley's Hammond smashes and Box's vibrant lead guitar. Crunching staccato Hammond blasts and a memorable guitar motif make this a progressive classic.

The descending riff is awesome on the proggy 'Shadows of Grief'. Some excellent Hammond answers and trade offs leading to a vibrant lead break. The organ shimmers on this and the musicianship overall is some of the best from the band. The quiet ending sounds like Pink Floyd's Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' as it is very psychedelic, building gradually with powerful high harmonies, very much like Deep Purple in some ways. The weird ending is the shimmering Hammond sound heard in the middle of 'Gypsy'.

'What Should Be Done' is next and we have a grand piano intro and Byron's very gentle vocals. This is the Heep ballad that is added to every album. It's okay but I prefer when they are in full flight and hammering hard. The wah-wah guitar break of Box is quite beautiful.

'Love Machine' ends the vinyl album on a powerful note. Tons of Hammond and a riff that motors along with a quick tempo are the dominant sounds. Byron's vocals are fantastic on this. It sounds a bit like Rainbow's 'Starstruck' in melody. The lead break is terrific and caps this album off on a high note.

The bonus tracks are great, a single edited hard rocking version of the title track, and 'What's Within My Heart'. This second track features some banter prior to the song by the band as they count in the sparse twin acoustic guitars. It is a forgettable soft ballad, with minimalist acoustics, and feels like a demo track. It is lovely the way the bass comes in though, and the vocals are well performed.

In conclusion, "Look at Yourself" is one of the best Heep albums without a doubt. It features some fabulous Hammond and is a real proto-metal rocker. The tracks are all excellent with a few patchy sections, and not as proggy as some others, but this album is still very consistent quality rock.

AtomicCrimsonRush "Salisbury" is one of the first great Uriah Heep albums after a slow and steady start with inconsistent albums that always had at least 3 killer tracks. David Byron on vocals, Ken Hensley on keyboards and Mick Box on guitars was the driving force of the band.

It opens with 'Bird of prey' that riffs along with excellent vocals. The music is dynamic and powerful on 'Time to Live' leading to the quiet tranquillity of 'The Park'. The beauty and peace of quiet organ and acoustics with high falsetto vocals are later subjugated by Hensleys' hammering Hammond and Box's monster riff.

'Lady in Black' has a simply awesome proto-metal riff that locks into your brain. The lovely acoustic driven verses are counter balanced by the heavy guitars. The sound is similar to 'Gypsy' and the way it fades to a bass and drum at the end and harmonies is inspired creativity, and then the rest of the music is tracked back in, as if the mixing editor were fiddling with the sound, it's the stuff of innovation.

'High Priestess' is a straight rocker with some great lead guitar on Box's wah-wah pedals.

The final track is 'Salisbury', the monster epic, with huge majestic intro using brass and flute by John Fiddy. The guitars are powerful and drive the song along consistently with one riff after another. The 26 piece orchestra is an inspired touch and it is overwhelmed by crunching Hammond and blazing guitars. It is not as memorable an epic as some others from the 70s, but it is unique to Heep and a definite triumph or a band who opted for shorter tracks on subsequent albums.

The bonus tracks are 'Simon The Bullet Freak' and a single edit of 'High Priestess'. Both bonus tracks are very good rockers and cap off a solid album, showcasing the musicianship of the band. It contains some of the band's best material featuring in many concerts and compilations.

"Salisbury" has a memorable iconic front cover of a tank crushing a flower, that is ironic as the music often reflects the feeling of heavy metal stomping on the flower power generation once and for all. The album comes recommended to those who like hard driving rock with a taste of symphonic orchestral arrangements.

1967/ 1976 "Shades Of Deep Purple" is the debut LP of Deep Purple, one of the inventors of Heavy Metal. But Shades Of Deep Purple is (and this in not only my opinion) a great example of Psychedelic Proto Prog malbum. In this album is present "Hush", a great Joe South cover, a hit in USA and DP evergreen. Also "Mandrake Root" is a DP evergreen and one of the best DP original tracks. But the rest of the album is not at the same level (But Beatles cover "Help" is good because very emotional).

In general this album is a typical album for 1968 with a good mix between Proto Prog and Psychedelic Rock but not representative og MkI.

AtomicCrimsonRush Light years ahead of their time, High Tide present the birth of prog metal.

The first sound that emanates from this colossal album is a grungy sludge guitar riff, very distorted and fuzzy. It almost sounds grunge and this is back in 1969! It begins with the lo-fi crunching psychedelic metal of 'Futilist's Lament'. The band announce that this is going to be a heavy psych prog experience. High Tide are Roger Hadden on drums, Tony Hill on guitar, vocals, Simon House on violin, piano, and Peter Pavli on bass. They are one of the loudest, heaviest bands of the late 60s and must have been a major influence to Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath and reminds me of Blue Cheer meets Hawkwind. The metal riffs are almost like Black Sabbath in places and the wah wah guitar reminds us we are in the psychedelic 60s. This is a sensational track that must be heard over and over with the amps on 11.

'Death Warmed Up' is a 9 minute hard rocking instrumental with blazing guitars and a manic violin that assassinates the grunge vibe to make way for a progressive heavy sound. The twin guitar lead break is spacey and locks in on a repetitive riff. It is rather lengthy for a loud, proud, and endowed band, but it works in a hypnotic sense, similar to the sonic jamming attack of Hawkwind.

'Pushed, But Not Forgotten' is a slow ballad with quiet violin and guitar and a gentle vocal. But only or about a minute. It breaks out into a loud guitar solo and a heavier beat with some excellent guitar riffs. Then it settles back to a serene atmosphere with restrained music lulling you off to sleep. But now we are on edge wondering when it will break out again. Sure enough the amps get turned up again and the distorted guitar cracks the peace in half with admirable ferocity.

'Walking Down Their Outlook' begins immediately with moderate vocals and steady beat. Then there is a wonderful guitar lick using scaled notes up the frets. The spacey section follows and ascends until another screaming guitar passage. The way the song breaks and changes constantly is quite an original approach given the date this was released. The section that begins at 2:40 is one of the great instrumental breaks, howling guitars, folk violins and keyboard augmentations. The cadence escalates into a hypno-groove with folk metal motorvating along on a strong beat. Then a minimalist violin takes over to finish the track. Wonderful heavy prog.

'Missing Out' is another lengthy 9 minute track, with very complex fugue motifs emblazoned over intricate guitar notes constantly played. The violin is always present slicing back and forth and the estranged vocals of Tony Hill. What a sensational sound High Tide are able to create with these instruments, almost like a metal version of Comus. At 3:50 there is a fantastic violin and lead guitar solo with instruments trading off to the wild percussion. The lyrics are hard to decipher but a lot of it sounds improvised such as "Oh, my soul is going down, and I'm ready." This finishes with an attacking drum solo and an extended outro.

'Nowhere' closes the album with a terrific violin and guitar solo at the start. The violin and guitar battle it out for supremacy for a while, neither winning the contest, and then the lead guitar takes over with prog time changes and is joined by a descending flurry of violin notes. It slows in tempo and Hill's low vocals return; "marking time and shutting out each warming smile, what shall be the go between they laugh and cry, effigies of souls are seen to come and go, moving through the mists of fear , they come to know." The dark lyrics fit in perfectly with the moody atmospheric music.

The conclusion is that this album is one of those rare treasures unearthed from the tomb of obscurity, hardly making an impact until now, and the listener will be enthralled that "Sea Shanties" finally has seen the light of day.

J-Man Led Zeppelin's 1969 debut still stands today as one of the most iconic rock albums from its era. Everything from the instantly recognizable cover art to the groundbreaking music contained within the album has become a staple in heavy rock culture, and calling this debut anything short of 'revolutionary' would probably be an understatement. Led Zeppelin began their musical journey with a very firm foot in the well-trodden soil blues rock, but with a level of unbridled heaviness that was quite unique when it was released in January of 1969. While I wouldn't call Led Zeppelin a flawless masterpiece, it is a very impressive and downright essential debut from England's most famous hard rock act.

Many of the chord progressions, lyrical themes, and song structures can easily be traced back to blues rock, but Led Zeppelin had quite a bit more to offer than just that with their debut. The beautiful acoustic guitars in "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You", stunningly heavy riffs in "Dazed and Confused" (easily the highlight of the album), folk-influenced sound of "Black Mountain Side", and straightforward hard rock of "Communication Breakdown" immediately set Led Zeppelin apart from your average blues rock group - as a matter of fact, this album was nothing short of groundbreaking when one considers the musical climate in which it was released. The more straightforward blues tracks ("You Shook Me" and "I Can't Quit You Baby") don't exactly appeal to my liking very much, but there are plenty of redeemable qualities in both, especially Robert Plant's soulful vocals and Jimmy Page's blinding fretwork.

All four musicians here deliver fantastic performances individually, and collectively they shine even brighter. The chemistry between these extremely gifted musicians is unignorable, and the mix of Jimmy Page's fantastic guitar leads, John Bonham's pounding drum fills, Robert Plant's dynamic vocals, and John Paul Jones' clever basslines and occasional organ sections makes for an album of sheer musical bliss. The production is pretty raw and organic, and I think this sound suits the band's heavy rock style perfectly.

I'm pretty sure that anyone reading this review has heard Led Zeppelin's debut somewhere down the line, but if you haven't, it's obviously an essential purchase for anyone interested in the origins of heavy rock music. Though I don't adore the entire album as much as some other listeners, this is still an ambitious and, more times than not, highly successful effort from these legendary rockers. 4 stars are the least I can give to this excellent and seminal classic. Led Zeppelin got off to a spectacular start, and time would show that they would improve even more over the coming years.

AtomicCrimsonRush Rush's first live album is a definitive record of all that is great about the power trio. It features stunning performances of Bastille Day, Anthem, Fly By Night / In The Mood and Something For Nothing, among others. The band perform some of their earlier material and for this reason it is worth getting hold of this album in particular to hear the best versions of tracks from the debut album. It also boasts a full blown prog fest epic in the form of 2112, running for almost 16 minutes. A version of Working Man merged with Finding My Way is a gem and also the unbeatable Bytor and the Snow Dog, featuring killer guitar solo. The concert is not long, at least what has been recorded here and on DVD, but it is still a shining treasure of the classic live Rush, with each member at their best, Geddy's vocals reach those high octave notes with ease, Peart is full of energy, and Lifeson's guitar work is sensational. There are many other live Rush albums, the best being the 3 CD "Different Stages" but this is still a terrific taste of the prog legends in full flight.

Sheavy Killer, in my humble opinion, is one of the 70's most essential albums, regardless of what kind of music you are into. Every song on here is top notch Cooper material, from the Proggy epic Halo of Flies where there is even a parody from The Sound of Music. The quick rockers, Under My Wheels and You Drive Me Nervous are wonderful, and out of the two I have to point out the great horn section from Under My Wheels which really adds another layer to an already great song. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah is almost a cross between Prog and blues with some complex-ish parts, and even a harmonica solo from Alice. Killer is the amazing ending song to this amazing album, which is another very Proggy song with what sounds like an organ near the end.

If you don't have this album then you truly are missing out on a amazing piece of the 70's.

UMUR "Fun House" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US hard rock/ proto punk act The Stooges. The album was released in July 1970 by Elektra Records. The Stooges have on several occasions expressed their dissatisfaction with the way their debut album ended up sounding. The band felt that Elektra Records pressured them into writing short vers/chorus based tracks when in fact their "real" sound was more based on extented jams. Therefore The Stooges made it their mission to make sure that "Fun House" would be to their satisfaction and represent what they really sounded like. The band travelled to Los Angeles and recorded the album in the 14 days between May 10th and May 24th of 1970 with producer Don Gallucci. Don Gallucci understood the band´s vision and set up a recording schedule where the band would record one track a day live in the studio. They would then pick the best version out of maybe 10-20 versions of each track and put on the album.

The band had some pretty bad drug habits already before going to Los Angeles but it was during these recording sessions that they were introduced to heroin. A drug several of the members would become addicted to and one of the main reasons for the band´s demise. The other main contributor to that demise was probably the fact that none of The Stooges albums sold very well upon initial release and they weren´t very well received by neither critics nor fans either. The Stooges are a classic case of posthumous fame and recognition.

The music on "Fun House" is a pretty interesting mix of several different music styles. You got the distorted hard rock riffing (take a listen to the opening riff in "T.V. Eye". That sounds like Motörhead to me), repetitive krautrock beats that remind me of artists like Can and Popol Vuh and then there´s the dark psychadelic rock vibe that reminds me of The Doors. Most of all you can just hear how much The Stooges enjoy playing and that´s always a positive experience. Lead vocalist Iggy Pop sounds absolutely mad on some of the tracks. The 7:45 minutes long jamming title track which includes saxophone playing by Steve McKay, is probably where you´ll heard Iggy Pop at his most out there, but also the closing noise jam "L.A. Blues" sets standards for chaotic madness. The latter is probably an aquired taste, but as far as I understand it´s tracks like "L.A. Blues" and "Fun House" that tell most about how The Stooges sounded on stage.

"Fun House" is a bold statement from a band that wasn´t even established yet. They took a chance with the relatively experimental approach and failed badly in commercial terms. They were soon after dropped by Elektra Records and the band went into a hiatus. They would resurface as Iggy & The Stooges and release "Raw Power (1973)" through Columbia Records but finally disbanded in early 1974. Alledgedly at this point Iggy Pop had become impossible to work with as a result of his heroin addiction. But that was a few years more down the line. "Fun House" may not have done the trick for the large part of music critics or for most music buyers but they had a cult following that would keep mentioning their name and ensure them a place in music history. The first prolific act to cover a song by The Stooges was The Sex Pistols. The Sex Pistols included The Stooges track "No Fun" as the B-side to their 1977 "Pretty Vacant" single.

I can certainly understand the mixed reactions to "Fun House". If you come to the album expecting neatly arranged vers/chorus tracks you´ll be disappointed. If you come to the album expected tracks creating in the spirit of jamming you´ll be much more likely to enjoy the album. I enjoy every track on the album except for "L.A. Blues", which I actually find quite annoying. Noise for the sake of it, has never been my poison. Unfortunately that track has so much impact on my listening experience that I have to take away half a star from my rating. A 3.5 - 4 star rating is deserved.

UMUR "The Stooges" is the debut full-length studio album by US hard rock/proto punk act The Stooges. The album was released in August 1969 through Elektra Records.

The music is a distorted and noisy kind of hard rock and is understandably called proto punk by many. The snarling "fuck You" attitude is certainly there and considering the album was released in 1969 it´s at times a quite extreme hard rock album. To contrast the predominantly short and aggressive tunes the album also features the 10:18 minutes long "We Will Fall" which to my ears is a complete The Doors worship. Psychadelic, chanting, repetitive and bleak "We Will Fall" in many ways reminds me of "The End".

While the musicianship isn´t on the highest level, there´s an honesty and organic delivery about the whole affair that is rare. This is raw and "In your Face". Add to that lead vocalist Iggy Pop´s generally flippant attitude and the album comes off as a good example of a noisy and loud, sex, drugs and rock´n´roll type album.

The Stooges deliver with this album, there´s no doubt about that, but it´s also obvious that they weren´t very mature as songwriters yet, and not all tracks are queally interesting. Alledgedly the band didn´t have enough material to record a full-length studio album but The Stooges lied to Elektra Records and said they had enough material to enter the studio. That resulted in "Real Cool Time", "Not Right", and "Little Doll" being written so close to entering the studio, that The Stooges didn´t have time to rehearse them properly before recording them. Despite a few shortcomings I think "The Stooges" is a great debut album and a 3.5 star rating is warranted.

rdtprog This is the review of the Blu-Ray version of the movie that i saw for the first time in theater a long time ago. There is a improvement of the picture quality compare to the DVD version, but nothing as good as a Blu-Ray of today. What is so interesting about this movie is that it's not only a music concert, it's a lot more. There is some fiction images throughout the movie along with behind the scenes and real day life action footage with each members of the band. The musicians played a role by illustrating the story of the songs like characters in a movie.

The movie starts with the arrival of the crew and the band in Manhattan by car. The city where the show has a important meaning to the movie. There is some entertaining behind the scenes footage, that had took place during the show. It's a real treat to see the manager takes on his crew members who had let circulate some pirates posters of the band. There goes down the drain the merchandising profits! And not only that, but we learned that a robbery of the show's profits had been stolen!

Now for the actual live footage! To have footage of the legendary band is a rare historical moment and i have never been disappointed by the quality of the footage, a little dark with no visuals, because the music was so appealing to me. The idea of illustrating the show with a story is not a bad idea, but at times, i was missing the joy of seeing the band play their instrument, it's the case, especially during the song "The Song Remains the Same", who is one of the best Led Zeppelin songs, along with "No Quarter", simply because for me that's the songs that are the closest to Progressive rock with their nice atmosphere. Another highlight of the show is the 15 minutes drum solo of John Bonham, who is captured nicely by cameras.

The extras contains more songs, and more footage of the conference press talking about the robbery that i was talking earlier in my review. After 38 years, it's easy for me to give this a 5 stars, because it's still a great music to hear today despite some flaws on the quality of the footage, but put in the context of the 70's and restore on Blu-Ray, it's nice to watch. The 5.1 mix also add a new dimension to the whole experience.

1967/ 1976 I copy from www.italianprog.com:"New Trolls' leaders Nico Di Palo and Vittorio De Scalzi came to a legal struggle on the use of the band's name in 1973, with Di Palo taking with him the line up that had released Ut a year before. The four piece recorded an LP due for release with Fonit, but they couldn't yet call themselves New Trolls, so the album was issued with a giant question mark on the cover and no band name, and the group is usually referred to with the name of its members, Nico, Gianni, Frank, Maurizio. A very good album, Canti d'innocenza, canti d'esperienza is the ideal follow-up to Ut, with a convincing mix of classical and hard rock influences."

This first album present a great Heavy Metal version of New Trolls concept. The first side is entitled "Canti D'Innocenza" (eng: "Songs of Innocence")and present three songs. The first song "Innocenza, Esperienza" (eng: "Innocence, Experience") is a song very powerful, in a sort of mix between Led Zeppelin and Gentle Giant, also if more close to Led Zeppelin. More personal is the second song of this side "Signora Carolina" (eng: "Miss Caroline"), a great mix between Gentle Giant and Deep Purple, because of the baroque parts dominion also if Heavy metal parts are important in the economy of this song. "Simona" is an acoustic song in 70's Italian songwriters style. The second side is entitled "Canti D'esperienza" (eng: "Songs of Experience") and the first song is "L'amico della porta accanto" (eng: "The Friend of the Next Door"), a great song that anticipates the full traditional Heavy Metal of 80's and 90's remaining a full 70's song for the use of structure and organ. This song is a sort of Proto Prog Metal song that speaks of a multiethnic city where sailors of every race, nationality and religion every day looking for relationships of any kind and by any means. The second song of B-side is "Vecchia Amica" (eng: "Old Female Friend"). This song is a pure Hard Rock song with Prog Rock structure, a guitar a la Hendrix. Hmm... "Vecchia Amica" is a great tribute to Jimy Hendrix (with a good vocalist... Not as Garybaldi!) with some full Heavy Metal drums figure. "Angelo Invecchiato" (eng: "Grow Old Angel") is a psychedelic song without connection with Hard Rock and Heavy Metal.

In great substance "Nico, Gianni, Frank, Maurizio" or "?" is a good album with a poor sound production: too dark and heavy. So the Prog Rock parts not sung good in this album of Proto Prog Metal. Remain the fact that Ibis was a geat band, a band that anticipated what now is Prog Metal.

Kingcrimsonprog I have seen a few other Queen DVDs and have a penchant for concert Blu Rays in general so I had high expectations going into this. Queen Rock Montreal not only lived up to my expectations but in many areas exceeded them. Not only is the concert filmed just before the synthesizers-period, with the band absolutely playing the hell out of their instruments, but the technical aspects of the concert recording are top notch too, leaving the whole thing great in all departments.

The sound quality is absolutely superb, crystal clear and very big, which really brings to attention all the skill and virtuosity with which Queen played the gig, and that's not just the mix but the recording quality itself too.

The video, which is of course excellent in the main concert, has been scrutinized and cleaned up on the original 35mm prints before being re-scanned for maximum quality, there is even a fairly detailed description of the process in the linear notes. Consequently, the concert looks amazing and clear in a way no other Queen concert does as of yet.

In terms of the concert itself, there is no question of quality whatsoever. Queen are absolutely electric and deliver a wide array of some of their hardest and heaviest material in about as energetic and impressive a performance as has been captured on film, and mix it up with a few quieter numbers for balance and variety, leaving a full and complete Queen concert experience.

The band don't even just stick to the big radio hits either, playing material such as 'Dragon Attack,' 'Get Down Make Love,' and 'Sheer Heart Attack,' that you wouldn't necessarily expect in with the 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' and 'Under Pressure,' level songs.

The highlights for me were the excellent performance of 'I'm In Love With My Car,' with Roger both singing masterfully and nailing the drum fills to perfection as well as their fast and hard rendition of early number 'Keep Yourself Alive.'

The band's performance is excellent, the track listing is excellent and the audio visual quality is excellent. What more could you possibly ask for in a concert Blu Ray ?

In terms of extras, you get commentary from Brian and Roger, A hilariously bad 80s TV special on Queen, An interesting rehearsal/interview for Live Aid and of course the excellent Live Aid performance itself, which doesn't even require describing it is that well regarded.

Overall I highly recommend this product, I enjoy a lot of Live Concert DVDs and Blu Rays and this is definitely one of the finest I've come across, especially if you like the harder rock side of Queen.

bassgeezer This is not, in my opinion, Deep Purple’s best album, but it is nonetheless a masterpiece. The album begins and ends with tracks that prove that simplicity is the art of design. Maybe I’m a Leo experiments with a more funky riff. Pictures of Home is a Deep Purple classic with a lovely bass solo that maybe one day I’ll be able to play. Never Before returns to a more funk-rock feel. Smoke on the Water is of course a classic and must have the most well known riff on the planet. It’s the song that sells the album. Lazy, though, is my favourite track on the album - a track that slowly builds.

Sheavy Negative Negative Negative Negative Negative, Yes Negative.

Early British Proto metal band, Edgar Broughton Band, is a vastly underrated and unknown band, that really does not get the recognition it deserves.

The music here ranges from great 70's hard rock/heavy metal songs, to more extended Prog songs.

My favorite thing about this band is the vocals by Edgar broughton. It is very remincent of Captain Beefheart, and it works perfectly with the music here. This band also has a very Black Sabbath attitude, but with more humorous and political lyrics, than Sabbath. But they also have some very disturbing songs too.

The first song Vibrations is a very psychedelic song, with some funky sounding guitar. It is worth mentioning, that on my cd, there are two bleeped out words, which is highly annoying, but I cannot hold this against the band. The following song is a great Prog song, albeit very, very strange, which has some story about this talking moth and some boy named peter. This song has a interesting middle section where, following the moth telling the boy (peter) to grow, a bunch of voices come in making fun of peter, and calling him names and what not, then comes this great heavy groove, before this and the voices fade away and give into a very Black Sabbath sound, yet it is worth pointing out here, that technically, this band is not really influenced by Black Sabbath, since EBB had a full studio album out about a year before Black Sabbath. This is followed by a great heavy bluesy song, with more strange lyrics that this band likes.

I hope I have got you sufficiently interested into checking out this amazing lost band, so i will try not to spoil any more of the crazyness that follows in this album, suffice to say it gets weirder, creepier, and more humourous.

I also have the bonus cd, which adds there most known song, Out Demons Out, and six more amazing songs that did not make the cut for this album, yet they are just as good as the songs that did make it onto the album.

Sheavy Nobody gonna take my car. Let's go space truckin'. COME ON!

Another quintessential Proto-Metal album review here, and this time it's Machine Head by Deep Purple. Deep Purples best known line-up, as well as it's most fruitful, has solidified it's place in the anals of metal history with this album.

Featuring the immortalized song Smoke On The Water, which is about a venue that Frank Zappa was at burning down, and it's unforgetable opening riff, as well as featuring such overshadowed songs like Space Truckin' and Highway Star, which I actually think are the two best DP songs ever, along with the great bluesy feel of Lazy and Maybe I'm A Leo. Drummer Ian Paice really shows his muscle on songs such as Space Truckin' and Pictures Of Home. Ritchie Blackmore has great guitar playing on all the songs, Jon Lord has a great solo during Highway Star, Roger Glover's bass is a omnipresent driving force to all of the songs, and Ian Gillan's singing is in top form here.

This album is one that should be heard by music fans into any form of music.

Sheavy People think I'm insane....

Two masterpiece albums within a year? Yes, it is possible and Black sabbath are proof of this. The follow up to their self titled debut is just as much a masterpiece in every way to the debut, except the dumb cover, but that does not make this album bad at all.

This album is the one that really got everyones attention to this crazy new heavy blues band with a taste for the occult.

This album features probably the three most reckognized Sabbath songs ever, and they all deserve the recognition they get. From the almost radio friendly Paranoid, to the devasting beginning of Iron Man, to the rumbling behemoth crawl of Luke's Wall/War Pigs, this is, I dare say, the most influential metal album ever created. Almost every metal band in existence owes something to this band, and this album.

From the drum solo on Rat Salad to the rather creepy Electric Funeral, this album is indispensable for any music collection.

Sheavy This album is downright evil, in all the best ways possible. This little group from Birmingham, England are the undisputed Gods of the 70's metal bands, and this record and the following are prof of this. When one thinks of the word "metal" gritty and raw and dirty come to mind, not highly polished glossy or "glam". Blues is a very raw sounding type of music generally, and Black Sabbath took the that sound and absolutely dropped it into hell.

All the members play with a passion that is hard to get across in studio recordings. Tony's guitar playing is stellar, with A Bit of Finger / Sleeping Village / Warning featuring ome outstanding guitar soloing. Geezer Butler is also playing top notch, with even a little bass solo wedged in between The Wall Of Sleep and N.I.B..

This album is bassically a masterpiece of music, let alone metal. There was really only a little hint of what kind of sound was possible, Edgar Broughton Band' debut is a masterpiece with moments to rival this, and Led Zeppelin's Dazed And Confused being really the only two doom metal sounding songs before this was unleashed upon the world.