TRIUMPH — Rock & Roll Machine (review)

TRIUMPH — Rock & Roll Machine album cover

Album · 1977 · Hard Rock

4/5 · 2020-07-19
voila_la_scorie

Fireball steamer, heavy metal screamer, playin’ licks hotter than hell

One of my big interests is scrounging about in the annals of heavy metal history in search of trivia. One of my recent quests has been to discover who first sang about heavy metal music. From 1980 onwards, the ball gets rolling pretty quickly. But prior to that, I have only two examples so far: Triumph’s 1976 and 1977 releases.

Back in those days, I don’t believe anyone commonly referred to any bands as heavy metal bands. There were rock and roll bands who played heavy metal music, but even a band who - like Triumph - would sing about playing heavy metal, or talk about it, would still consider themselves a rock band. Just listen to interviews with Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilminster. He continuously insisted that heavy metal was just another way of playing rock and roll.

These days we look back upon the hard and heavy rock of the seventies and classify most of it as either hard rock or proto-metal. But sometime around 1974/5 the music press began to refer more frequently to those heavy guitar rockers as heavy metal music. Triumph picked up on it and included references to heavy metal in two tracks from their first two releases. I’m still searching for other examples from around the same period.

Triumph was part of Canada’s 1970’s hard/heavy rock explosion. April Wine, A Foot In Cold Water, Thundermug, Moxy, and of course Rush and Bachman Turner Overdrive had already been blazing the way with albums, and Triumph dropped their debut in 1976. What’s remarkable is how they had already established their familiar sound right from the start. That distinctive sound of Rik Emmett’s guitar, his talent on both electric and classical guitar, Gil Moore’s drumming, the dual lead vocal attack of Emmett and Moore, Mike Levine’s solid bass playing, and a touch of synthesizer for atmosphere was there from album one.

Their second album continues the band’s modus operandi with Gil Moore taking the lead vocals for the heavy sluggers like “Takes Time” and “Little Texas Shaker” and Rik Emmett often singing many of the lighter and more progressive tracks.

If Triumph were a rock and roll band that played heavy metal then some of the lighter tracks are not diversions but part of the band’s repertoire. “New York City Streets Part 1” sticks to clean guitars and a light funky feel, breaking into a sped-up jazzy instrumental break at the end. Part 2 is a typical Triumph heavy rocker. Most of the album, though, is pretty solid rock out heavy bombast.

Two tracks that are worthy of a more detailed description are the two part, single track “The City” and the album’s titular song. “The City” begins with an arrangement from Holst’s “Mars - God of War”. It will be familiar to metal fans because Diamond Head famously used it for “Am I Evil”, later covered by Metallica and it was also the inspiration for Black Sabbath’s “Black Sabbath” riff. You’ll also find it on Andromea’s 1969 album. After the “Mars” climax, there’s a burst of classical guitar followed by a flamenco guitar instrumental. At last the lyrical part of the song begins, slow, slightly solemn and melancholy. The final part of the song sees the return of the heavy metal Triumph. It’s no wonder with a track like this that Triumph are often included in prog rock conversations.

The title track is Triumph showing off their heaviness and speed, an intentional display of 1977 heavy metal music. Rik Emmett gets to show of his speedy fingers with a guitar solo - a real solo sans band - that scorches the fretboard. Personally, I feel the guitar sound is a bit scratchy and the use of delay doesn’t help the effect. While the fancy finger work is meant to impress, I enjoy many of Rik’s other solos much more just because they sound better. Nevertheless, “playin’ licks hotter than hell” is not an understatement!

Triumph tends to be overshadowed by compatriots Rush who just seemed to achieve so much more. But for a solid hard/heavy rock act that deviated for only one album, Triumph are worthy of recognition. Not to mention that they might just be the first band to release a song that sings about heavy metal music.

more than 2 years ago
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MrMan2000 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Hit submit too early!

But there was plenty of music referred to as "heavy metal" throughout the 70s. Usually it was in reference to bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Budgie...but most obviously Black Sabbath. So it was a often-used term to describe what most people today call hard rock.

MrMan2000 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Pretty sure the words "heavy metal" first appeared on Born to Be Wild by Steppenwolf:

I like smoke and lightnin'
Heavy metal thunder
Racing in the wind
And the feeling that I'm under

Here it pretty clearly references motorcycles, so maybe you mean in reference to music.