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The Proto Metal Appreciation Thread |
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Certif1ed 
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 Topic: The Proto Metal Appreciation ThreadPosted: 24 Jan 2011 at 2:15am |
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AKA Dawn of the Ancients.
}}}}wibbly, wibbly, wibbly, wibbly{{{{
In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, lived a strange race of men...
No one knows who they were or what they were doing, but their legacy remains, Hewn into the living rock.
We'll go back in time to that mystic land, where the dew drops cry and the cats meow - I will take you there, I will show you how...
*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*
...and so it is that I welcome you to the strange but fascinating (and sometimes genuinely scary) world of proto metal. Every so often, I'll post a few YouTubes of a band in this thread, and together we can bang our heads with a serious expression on our faces until our ears bleed, savour the smoulderin' metal vibes until our noses bleed, touch the sharp edges of raw metal unti our fingers bleed, and smell... oh, sorry. Must lay off the chili...
The idea here is simple - we listen to and appreciate in quiet reverence the music of bands that went a bit beyond mere hard rock and produced something akin to heavy metal music, laying the foundations for sites like this, and about 80% of our music collection.
Or, we listen to and deride the crappy pentatonic noodling, godawful voices, clueless drumming and sad attempts at devilry, decrying the pathetic attempts with gales of laughter - your call.
I'm going to do this alphabetically - and I have a reasonably long list... it would be appreciated if any additional suggestions could be kept alphabetical also!
To kick off, here's a band I'm not altogether sure about - They're sometimes in the Atomic Rooster/Uriah Heep vein, but don't seem quite as consistent in the heavy department, as their other songs get very Styx-y (I don't mind Styx, it's just that they're not what I could call metal...).
Mind you, when this band are heavy, they're massive. I think that "Coming Is Love part ii" sounds a bit like something off Diamond Head's Canterbury album.
Both songs on the band's bio page are from the band's second album, released in 1973 and entitled "The Second Foot in Coldwater".
If you know of any other hard n heavy tracks by this band, stick a linky in this thread!;
Enjoy A Foot In Coldwater
/edit: A Foot in Coldwater are now added, (<- linky) and the videos are available on the band page.
To be honest, it sounds like only "The Second foot in Coldwater" is proto metal, and the rest is just very capable, melodic rock music - but check them out! Edited by Certif1ed - 24 Jan 2011 at 11:13am |
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Colt
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Posted: 24 Jan 2011 at 3:10am |
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Looking forward to this thread!
 
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Certif1ed
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Posted: 25 Jan 2011 at 3:27am |
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So I'm thinking how best to format this thread - I first thought to include YouTubes, then thought that might be a bad idea for people with low bandwidth (yes, there are still plenty of them left!).
Now I'm thinking maybe I'll keep the most current ones in here, then "move" them out of this thread to the band's bio page - any thoughts?
Today's band are
Agnes Strange<---LINKY!
�
This band have a cool, kinda NWoBHM pedigree - their album was released on a private label, which was sponsored by a pub chain owned by the Watneys brewery company! You can't get a lot more 1970s metal than that - even if the "Private" label was really a collaboration with PYE/RCA.
�
The album was a flop and sank without trace, and, more brillliantly (as far as the�story goes - this must've sucked badly for the band), their demo album never got released�until recently, when it was bundled up with a re-issue of the released album�- this whole story is so familiar to NWoBHM bands, that Agnes Strange may well have been the first.
�
Their first album, originally scheduled for release in 1972,�Theme For a Dream is a mixed bag - out of the seven songs, 2 are very interesting proto metal.
�
The title track is a kind of heavy psyche song, with jazzy inclinations and proggy sounds, so is of some interest.
�
Messin' Around is a fascinating piece of proto metal, with loads of guitar bluff in the intro including tapping, arpeggios and all kinds of messin' around�- and�it� sounds almost EXACTLY�like it's the template for Van Halen's "Eruption"� - I kid you not!
�
Graveyard is the 3rd song on here, and it's a feast of proto metal - hard, heavy, intense (for the time)�and grinding, with power chords shifting above an E pedal.
�
The others aren't�as metallic as the�last two,�although there's a long�Chuck Berry/Angus Young styled solo in the middle of the song "Rockin' in E", a kind of Quo-boogie piece. There are a couple of interesting heavy moments in "The Day Dreamer", and "Book With No Cover" sounds a bit like a badly played early�Def Leppard piece - which is handy, because that latter is on YouTube, while the metallic ones aren't. It has to be said that this is probably the worst piece on the album (IMHO);
�
�
The second album "Strange Flavour" is full of grinding hard boogie that predicts NWoBHM�bands like Spider and Predatur. Stand out songs are "Motorway Rebel", which grinds hard, "Travelling",�has a surprising kind of Judas Priest with deep vocals flavour to it, the title track rocks really hard, as does the next track�"Loved One" (after the mellow intro);
I absolutely LOVE "Failure" with it's crunchy, metallic intro and further Priest flavourings�and�"Children of The Absurd", the next track, full of screeching and atmospheres - rather simplistic, but I prefer the term "honest" - and when it rocks, it ROCKS. PIty those aren't on YouTube...
�
"Odd Man Out" is cool enough, but I was impressed by the intensity (if not the actual playing) of "Highway Blues" - a slow boogie 12-bar, almost exactly like "The Jack" by AC/DC.
�
I'll dig out mp3's for this band, because the ones I've highlighted are really worth hearing. If you enjoyed the tunes I posted here, you'll enjoy the other ones even more.
Hope you enjoyed Agnes Strange. Edited by Certif1ed - 21 Mar 2012 at 3:02am |
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Colt
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Posted: 25 Jan 2011 at 4:24am |
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Nice!
1 1/2 minutes in on "Book With No Cover" and I thought Lemmy was guesting on vocals
 Nice idea switching the vids to the band page btw.
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Certif1ed
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Posted: 26 Jan 2011 at 7:34am |
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Next up is Ancient Grease. <---LINKY!
�
Man, these guys NEVER gave up - they kept chasin' the dream.
�
John Weathers, the same that later spent a long time beating the skins for prog heavyweights Gentle Giant, noticed a band called Strawberry Dust on his local circuit, where he was playing with a band called Eyes of Blue, that had formed in the mid 1960s.
�
He was so impressed with Strawberry Dust, that he offered to do a demo with them - and he�just so happened to have a good album's worth of songs, which was handy, as Strawberry Dust were a covers band with no original material. During the process, however, some of the band were so inspired that they did come up with new stuff.
�
Producer, Lou Reizner wasn't keen on the band's name, though, and came up with the superb alternative - Ancient Grease (presumably inpsired by Joe Cocker's Grease Band) - and the album, which was released in 1970, is entitled
�
Women and Children First
�
It's split roughly 50/50 between hard rockin' stompers with a huge grind, and more delicate, psychedelic flavoured pieces, but those stompers are pretty damn heavy for 1970;
Check the band's page on this website for some samples! Edited by Certif1ed - 21 Mar 2012 at 3:03am |
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Certif1ed
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Posted: 27 Jan 2011 at 2:50am |
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A quick one today - this band released only one single. There's a NWoBHM link straight away...
If you haven't heard of Chris "Ace" Kefford, you're in for a treat. In December of 1965, together with Roy Wood, Bev Bevan and Carl Wayne, he formed one of the most influential rock/pop groups since The Beatles - The Move. In November of 1967, The Move toured with The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Pink Floyd and Amen Corner - and The Move also supplied backing vocals to the song "You Got Me Floatin'" on Hendrix's "Axis: Bold As Love" album. After the single "Fire Brigade" peaked at number 3, Kefford left in early 1968 and formed his own band, The Ace Kefford Stand - or rather, he hijacked a rather good drummer from a very popular band called Young Blood (formerly The Sorcerors); Young Blood - Green Light (1968) He then recruited Young Blood organist, Pete's brothers, Dave and Dennis Ball on lead and bass guitar respectively - but all they managed to release was this rather powerful cover of The Yardbirds "For Your Love", with the rather heavy and strangely named "Gravy Booby Jam" on the flipside. The band actually recorded 8 songs under producer Tony Visconti - including a song called "Save The Life of My Child", which featured Jimmy Page on guitar (I think Page played guitar for just about everyone in the 1960s - in fact, reading up on all the musicians involved reveals them to be highly incestuous, in a musical way), but to the best of my knowledge, none of this has found its way into the wild yet. Here are the two only released pieces by The Ace Kefford Stand (1969). Oh - I forgot to mention who the drummer was. It was Cozy Powell. Edited by Certif1ed - 27 Jan 2011 at 2:52am |
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Certif1ed
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Posted: 28 Jan 2011 at 2:13am |
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I need a bit of help with the next one on the list - it's a band featuring legendary Atomic Rooster guitarist, John Du Cann, Andromeda - not the more recent Swedish "Progressive" metal band, it should be noted.
It should be noted that Du Cann was with Atomic Rooster only for their good stuff - he left fairly promptly and formed a band called Daemon - pretty metal, huh? He quickly went on to form Hard Stuff, who are so proto metal it hurts, and joined Thin Lizzy for a spell - it'd be quite good in a way to have an entry specifically for Mr Du Cann! �
Having listened to�Andromeda's album, I'm in a bit of a dilemma, as�it's not at all metal - except for a fairly lengthy section which quotes Mars: God Of War from Holst's Planets Suite.
�
The album was notably released in 1969 - so it just predates Black Sabbath, and you can clearly�hear the same classical piece underlying the song "Black Sabbath" - indeed, that famous tritonic melody�seems to infuse�everything Sabbath did, and has been used by many, many other bands after Sabbath - Diamond Head's "Am I Evil" being the most obvious example and�Journey's "Kohoutek", from their 1975 debut album being one to discover.
�
Deep Purple's "Child In Time" also alludes to it - although rhythmically, although it's totally possible that the allusion could be to Ravel's "Bolero", as the rhythmic constructions are similar. Anyway, I digress mightily...
�
John Du Cann's history is interesting, nay, fascinating; He was formerly involved with a band that have become a bit legendary among Freakbeat/Garage/Mod collectors called The Attack - replacing Davy O'List, who would go on to join Keith Emerson in The Nice�- , who have also been suggested for proto (The Attack, that is, not The Nice...);
�
�
The Attack are famous for being the band that wrote "Hi Ho Silver Lining", and getting really cross when Jeff Beck trumped them with his version;
�
�
After he left The Attack, he was briefly in Five Day Week Straw People, an interesting but unexciting psychedelic band (unless psychedelic rock excites you, of course...).
�
�
�
...anyway, here's the sole Andromeda piece which puts the band up for nomination - I won't add them until they've had a few thumbs up.
�
�
�
...so a worthy addition on the basis of this piece alone?
�
I'm not sure - but it's well worth a listen.
�
�
� Edited by Certif1ed - 21 Mar 2012 at 3:09am |
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goskoski
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Posted: 30 Jan 2011 at 10:02pm |
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The Beatles - Helter Skelter:
The Beatles/Deep Purple:
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goskoski
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Posted: 30 Jan 2011 at 10:07pm |
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I could not wait until letter d or t..
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Certif1ed
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Posted: 31 Jan 2011 at 3:14am |
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^Thanks for those.
�
TWO today - because I went a bit ahead of myself...
First is Asoka, a Swedish Hard/Jazz rock outfit with a chainsaw-meets-a-piliedriver�approach to jazz rock;
�
�
�
Next is a real off-the-wall one.
�
Atilla.
�
Featuring a very young Billy Joel.
�
By Billy's�account, it's the worst record he's ever made - so that surely makes it OK for metal fans - if the piano man himself hates it, it's probably worth listening to, no?
�
So Billy Joel proto metal? What next?
�
Well, next is the fact that the instrumentation features no guitars whatsoever - it's just drums, keyboards and vocals. �
[COLOR=#ffffff">There's a crucifying review on AllMusic[/COLOR"> too - but there�is�also a review which proclaims it as "[COLOR=#ffffff">fairly close to beating Deep Purple at their game with just an organ and drums[/COLOR">."
�
�
But check out the sleeve!!
�
Check out the attitude, aggression and pure, naked proto-metalness off it all... I say all. There are many moments where the music in almost every song seems to slide towards the upbeat, and something of the Billy Joel we all know today just can't hold itself back - but fortunately there is a lot of the aggressive stuff too - so enjoy Atillia - one of the scariest additions to any proto metal list (and it seems to appear on most).
�
Check out the song names - VERY metal!
�
�
...Is that the first blast beat at 2:00, or just a Buddy Rich/Gene Krupa�imitation?
Edited by Certif1ed - 21 Mar 2012 at 3:13am |
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Certif1ed
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Posted: 01 Feb 2011 at 3:01am |
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Today I wanted to focus solely on Aunt Mary, who were awesome - but some helpful soul (I think they're up later) sent me a link to a band called Atlee.
�
Can't say I was convinced, so I won't add it unless there's a huge demand, lack of other things to do, or a distinct�lack of album covers with boobies on or something - check out the psychedelickness;
�
(From the 1970 album, Flying Ahead)
�
�
�
The next band�produced some�proto metal though - we are not worthy of Aunt Mary.
�
I won't go into too much detail - you can check them out on ProgArchives.com - but they can bloody well share this band!
�
Three albums of amazing music -�in comparison, the debut�it makes Atlee sound heavy - but there's a pleasing similarity to the music of Shocking Blue, who are an extremely non-guilty pleasure of mine, so I thought I'd share it anyway;
Review Them Hear! So that's A over and done with (until I get sent links to any other bands beginning with A who played proto metal before 1974(ish))
 .] Edited by Certif1ed - 21 Mar 2012 at 3:15am |
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harmonium.ro
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Posted: 01 Feb 2011 at 6:49am |
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Thanks a lot for this thread Mark, keep'em coming!
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Certif1ed
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Posted: 02 Feb 2011 at 2:25am |
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^Thanks - try and stop me!
I'm quite excited about B, because one of my all-time favourite proto metal bands begins with the letter B - and I don't mean Black Sabbath (I am wondering why Sabbath are currently listed under proto metal at all, but I'll worry about that later...).
I'll confess now, I did skip over Atomic Rooster - but I'm assuming that they're well known enough to not require an introduction.
First up in the B section is Bang.
Bang released no less than 3 full-length albums - so why they aren't more widely known I'll never know.
According to interviews I've read, they were inspired by The Beatles (like everybody else in the late 1960s!), Black Sabbath and Grand Funk Railroad. They gained recognition by gatecrashing an event in Orlando that featured Rod Stewart and The Faces and Deep Purple. After convincing the promoter to let them play, he arranged gigs supporting Steppenwolf (Richmond, V.A), Alice Cooper, Mountain, Humble Pie, Three Dog Night and others.
Along with the 3 officially released albums on Capitol Records, Bang also recorded an album which to this day has never been released - word from the band is that it's heavier than any of the official releases, and has a working title of "Death Of A Country". They also recorded some singles, which have never been released and have become known as The Lost Singles. These songs are available on Bang's website (link is available through the artist's bio - link above!
The first album is probably the heaviest - here's the opening song, "Lions, Christians..."
This next clip is fascinating - the only surviving live clip of the band, from 1971. It starts with the album recording of "Lions, Christians...", but quickly moves on to other material from that time, so stick with it!
Next, a song from the second album, "Mother";
A song from the 3rd and final album - sadly, I couldn't find any of the heavy numbers on YouTube, but this song is nice enough;
...and to wrap up, the title track of the "Missing Album";
edit: Updated 16th Feb
MUST do my research more thoroughly!!!!
I just found out that Bang! released two albums in the 2000s - "Return To Zero" and "The Maze" - and they're both pretty good! Edited by Certif1ed - 07 Mar 2011 at 3:01am |
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harmonium.ro
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Posted: 02 Feb 2011 at 3:28am |
But you are on the Proto team  |
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Certif1ed
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Posted: 02 Feb 2011 at 3:55am |
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^Indeed. We're not joined at the hip...
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Certif1ed
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Posted: 03 Feb 2011 at 2:45am |
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Another Cozy Powell band for you (see Ace Kefford Stand above) - this guy practically invented Metal drumming!
Bedlam
Bedlam was formed from members of Ace Kefford Stand - most articles I've read incorrectly state that the guys were from Sorcerers/Youngblood, for whom Cozy also played.
All articles correctly state that the members of the band included the Ball brothers - so this is how I came to link Bedlam to the correct root.
The guys came to Bedlam via a band I'll feature later, called Big Bertha, who released some material. They then became Beast, briefly, but sadly, Beast didn't release anything. Then came Bedlam, in 1973.
Bedlam released a solitary album, produced by Felix Papparaldi of Mountain fame, on which the drumming is, of course, amazing. They also recorded a live album, which was only released in 2004, 6 years after Cozy's tragic death. The story behind this live album is well told elsewhere, so I won't re-tell it - I'll just post some of the great music!
R.I.P. Cozy
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Colt
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Posted: 03 Feb 2011 at 2:54am |
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Nice!
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UMUR
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Posted: 03 Feb 2011 at 4:16am |
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Wow Mark, this is a really great thread. Lots of new info for me.
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J-Man
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Posted: 03 Feb 2011 at 4:37pm |
Same here! I must confess to not being very familiar with many of the bands here, so this is tons of great material for me to look into.  Thanks Mark! |
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Check out my YouTube channel! http://www.youtube.com/user/demiseoftime
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Certif1ed
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Posted: 04 Feb 2011 at 2:11am |
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Thanks guys - I must say that doing the research into these bands is a kind of obsession of mine, so it's great to see some more potential proto addicts...
I've compiled a new list to integrate with the existing bands-to-add list - I keep discovering "new" proto metal bands all the time. Today's band preceeds "A", as it begins with a number - and I found a couple more for A, so excuse me as I back-pedal a bit;
31 Flavours / AKA Firebirds
Massively fuzz-drenched psychedelic rock that clearly marks a kind of missing link between Hendrix and Sabbath - Hendrix could scrape the proto list (after discussion), but these guys are so freakin' heavy they just have to be here.
Given that the guys are session musicians, I'm guessing that the sloppy playing is deliberate - the overall effect is certainly astonishingly heavy, especially on the track "Distortions of Darkness" - what a great title! Also, check out the proto thrash on the first song, "No Tomorrows".
This quote from Red Witch forum sums it up really well - no need for me to re-invent the wheel unless the author complains!
"The Firebirds were a session group for the UK fad exploitation label 'CROWN'.
They did a lot of goofy records under numerous pseudonyms, but their LP as sub-Jimi Hendrix Experience clones The Firebirds (called 'Light My Fire', but oddly not carrying the Doors hit of the same name / era) is a slab of inspired acid damaged mayhem! All the Hendrix cliches are on rampant display, the drummer out-Mitches Mitch Mitchell by playing 90% fills throughout the entire record, the bassist / singer croons like Cream's Jack Bruce, the guitarist freaks the hell out - just like the boss said.
The whole of it approaches a kind of hi-test Blue Cheer or Black Sabbath - just non-stop fryalator fuzz, and considering the purpose - album rack filler designed to confuse Grannies while birthday shopping for the wee ones - pretty damn impressive.
They also released 'Hair' under the name 31 Flavors. That album has some more quality garage pounding including 'Distortions of Darkness' (dumbest title ever?), an instrumental version of 'Light My Fire's 'Reflections' (itself a mutated, mutilated 'Foxy Lady'), slowed down and detuned into the heaviest track of '69, I guarantee! The best part?
Who the band members were remains a total mystery!"
The Firebirds - Light My Fire - No Tomorrows. Proto thrash begins around 0:50, but the intro is slow and doomy (and very, very, sloppy indeed - great!);
31 Flavours - Hair - Distortions of Darkness. Just awesome - turn this bad boy right UP!!!
Black who?
Edited by Certif1ed - 04 Feb 2011 at 2:38am |
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Certif1ed wrote: