BLUES CREATION — Demon and Eleven Children (review)

BLUES CREATION — Demon and Eleven Children album cover Album · 1971 · Heavy Psych Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
voila_la_scorie
Blues Creation was a Japanese band led by guitarist / vocalist Kazuo Takeda. Originally inspired by American blues, the debut album was comprised of covers of classic American blues artists. Their follow up album of 1971, "Demon and Eleven Children" took a sharp turn into the heavy blues / heavy psychedelic style that was popular at the time.

Only the second track on the album, "Mississippi Mountain Blues" bears any resemblance to traditional American blues and strongly resembles, in my opinion, a Yardbirds song with Jeff Beck on vocals. With acoustic guitar and electric lead guitar, this might not have been out of place on a Mountain album either.

From a proto-metal stand point, "Atomic Bombs Away", which kicks of the album, is a typical heavy blues number. But it's track three, "Just I Was Born" that comes rampaging bombastically through the speakers and gets my vote for awesome proto-metal music. Essentially a showcase for Takeda's guitar soloing abilities, which includes a classically-influenced segment, the song is structured around slow and heavy verses, a thunderous chorus, and frenetic lead guitar work.

Elsewhere the album continues to showcase the Japanese take on early heavy metal with songs like "Sorrow", which opens at a gallop before transitioning with a short bass solo into a slow and sombre heavy psyche piece, like an early doom metal trip into the melancholy. Plaintive electric guitar wails over the acoustic guitar, bass and drums. Here, however, I find the vocals are not as strong as we've heard so far.

Side two of the album features mostly heavy rockers like the short instrumental "Brane Baster"(on my CD it says "Brane Baster" but here on MMA it says "Brain Buster"), the heavy hitter "Sooner or Later", and the 11-minute plus title track, which leads off with a Sabbath-like doom riff before embarking on another pounding heavy rock escapade. There are a few key killer riffs throughout the song and the chorus is catchy but rocks out.

If there are any disappointments for me, I would say the second side opener "One Summer Day" is an unrewarding ballad. That and the first three tracks of side two are segued; however, the track breaks are done in a way so that when listening to the album as an mp3 there is a short gap between the tracks. I find it annoying when the acoustic guitar is interrupted in mid strum for a half second or when the raucous guitar of "Brane Baster" suddenly cuts out for a moment.

Overall this is an excellent piece of early seventies heavy rock and recommended to fans of this period in heavy metal history. Though Japanese singers often don't have the best English vocal work, Kazuo Takeda does a pretty good job on the heavy songs. And there's no denying that most of the album really kicks ass!
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