NAZARETH — Hair Of The Dog (review)

NAZARETH — Hair Of The Dog album cover Album · 1975 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Unitron
"Now you're messin' with a son of a bitch"

Hair of the Dog is Nazareth's peak and most successful album for a reason, it's such a defining album for both the band and the early days of heavy metal. Raw and raucous, it's a true meeting of swaggering blues and thunderous heavy metal with that Scottish angst that only Nazareth had perfected.

The opening title track is one of the band's biggest hits, and no surprise, few songs scream pure attitude as much as this. Whiskey Drinkin' Woman is pure blues swagger, Changin' Times and Beggars Day are the band's blues metal style at their best, and the pure pounding metal stomp of Miss Misery takes the cake as my favorite from both the album and probably favorite Nazareth song in general. So much power is exuded, and Dan McCafferty's raw and gravely vocals define the sound. It's been in constant rotation ever since I first got this album.

The only point that often prevents Nazareth's albums from being a fantastic journey all the way through are their usually sappy and yearning ballads. Guilty (or Love Hurts in the more common issues) is this, but the only dud. The other ballad, closer Please Don't Judas Me is a different story. I'd say this is probably the first metal ballad. It's ominous and lumbering, yet soulful and sounds immense without being distorted much. It's the song that the cover art best compliments, and there couldn't be a better finale for an album.

The self-titled and No Mean City are close seconds, but this remains my favorite. Both Nazareth and Scottish metal at its finest.
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Tupan wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I think I prefer No Mean City, but this is an immortal classic too!

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