Debate: Satori by Flower Travellin' Band is metal

Just checked this album out on a recommendation. It was Japanese group Flower Travellin' Band's second album (first of original material). It came out in 1971 and for the time period I was quite surprised by how heavy it was, and to me seems to have characteristics of both heavy metal and doom metal. What do you think? We have it in hard rock here (agreed by RYM's heavy psych tag) but to me this band sounds like something more on the level with bands like Black Sabbath (who they covered on their first album), Budgie and Sir Lord Baltimore.


http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/album/flower-travellin-band/satori

I had never heard of this band before, but I checked it out, and I would agree with you. While there's a lot of hard rock in the 70's that crosses into metal territory, this does sound like some serious Black Sabbath worship. Why am I not surprised that RYM doesn't know what they're talking about and doesn't have heavy metal or doom metal as at least secondary. 

Edited by Unitron - 10 Sep 2017 at 3:49pm

Just streamed the whole album. For me, it's more heavy metal with doom metal elements than hard rock (though it's also there)...  Many parts of the album do sound like early Black Sabbath. Maybe it should be tagged as traditional heavy metal, or at least proto-metal.

I can't say whether the heavy psych tag on RYM is appropriate since I haven't listened to many albums of the genre...


Edited by Sisslith - 10 Sep 2017 at 2:32pm

So I'm not thinking crazy then. Good to know. ;)

So can the album be moved to heavy metal then? I don't see anyone disagreeing.

I own this album. I consider it heavy psych that is heavier than usual. I would probably vote for proto-metal myself since it's not really a metal album in the traditional sense

siLLy puPPy wrote: One question i have always had is why a band like this would be considered metal when it uses slow distorted riffs but a much more energetic band like Van Halen which has monster riffing and blitzkrieg guitar solos is only considered hard rock. Seems illogical

I'm also pretty sure that under site rules this can't be placed in Proto Metal if it's a fully fledged heavy psych album.

TheHeavyMetalCat wrote: I'm also pretty sure that under site rules this can't be placed in Proto Metal if it's a fully fledged heavy psych album.

siLLy puPPy wrote: it's not really a metal album in the traditional sense

I'd argue that a traditional sense for metal didn't exist in 1971.

70's heavy metal is actually a very small pool of artists unless you want to count groups like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple who, while they may have been included in the fledgling heavy metal genre/scene then, are now widely considered 'just' hard rock bands.

Until the mid to late 70's there are actually very few groups that have a Heavy Metal tag either on RYM or here on MMA itself. From RYM's charts:

1970:

Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
Sir Lord Baltimore - Kingdom Come

1971:

Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Budgie - Budgie
Bang - Bang

1972:

Black Sabbath - Vol 4
Budgie - Squawk

1974:

Budgie - In For the Kill

1975:

Black Sabbath - Sabotage

That's literally just four bands and ten albums and all of them considered part hard rock. That's nowhere near enough to consider the heavy metal sound standardised.

'76 brings Judas Priest and Rainbow into the picture and this is our cut off year for Proto-Metal, so between them Rising and Sad Wings of Destiny could be seen as the first truly defining heavy metal albums, especially Sad Wings, which is the earliest heavy metal tagged album on RYM that doesn't have hard rock as a co-Primary.

This paves way for further bands in '77 such as Riot, Motörhead and Quartz, whose self-titled is the earliest release typically included as part of the NWoBHM. Personally I can't help but wonder if that's a little too early, but that's another debate.

Bearing this in mind, I don't think Satori should be judged by standards that only came to be years after its release. It needs to be judged as a contemporary of Black Sabbath, Budgie, Sir Lord Baltimore and Bang.

It may not be in line with the popular view, but I do think this album warrants Flower Travellin' Band being considered a fifth true early heavy metal act on MMA.