ATOMIC ROOSTER — Death Walks Behind You (review)

ATOMIC ROOSTER — Death Walks Behind You album cover Album · 1971 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Warthur
Vincent Crane had to rebuild his band from scratch since the debut, but in doing so he picked up the guitar talents of John Du Cann, whose arrival crystallises the band's sound on this second album. Whereas Crane's songwriting dominated the debut, this time around Crane and Du Cann share compositional duties more or less evenly, and between the pair of them they are able to carve out a distinctive and novel sound for the band.

The trio takes the dark and brooding themes unleashed that year by Black Sabbath, speeds the playing up, and enhances Du Cann's volcanic guitar playing with Crane's organ backing. The result is a fusion of prog-flavoured hard rock and proto-metal, with some doom metal spice (especially on the title track). Although the closing track is weak in points (it does sometimes turn into a showcase for Crane's organ solos), otherwise the album is solid from beginning to end. If Black Sabbath's two 1970 albums formed the blueprint for doom metal, this album has to be one of the foundational documents of more traditional metal (I particularly hear its influence in New Wave of British Heavy Metal acts of the late 1970s). Possibly the band's finest work.
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cannon wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Great review. I think this album is DuCaan's best work of any of his projects including Hard Stuff. Death Walks Behind You is the Rooster's most praised album though I prefer "In Hearing Of...", just by a feather.

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