WARPIG — Warpig (review)

Album · 1970 · Proto-Metal

4/5 · 2024-09-11
siLLy puPPy

As was the case with many promising bands smitten by their rock star heroes of the 60s and followed suit in the 70s, WARPIG was one of many talented bands that took its musical passion to the live circuit and quickly found a veritable following only to have the momentum crushed by the misfortunation of bad management, bankrupt labels and well just bad luck. This band which obviously derived its name from the famous Black Sabbath song was the brainchild of guitarist and vocalist Rick Donmoyer of Woodstock, Ontario after honing his chops in a number of bands including The Turbines, The Kingbees and Mass Destruction. Although formed as far back as 1968 after wooing fellow Mass Destruction members including bassist Terry Brett, keyboardist / guitarist Dana Snitch and drummer Terry Hook and spent many a night rehearsing in Donmoyer’s basement.

Having tightened their musical interplay as a band throughout Toronto pub scene, WARPIG built up a reputation as a fierce and charismatic band that built a sizable following and succeeded in capturing attention until one fateful night the label owner of Fonthill Records caught a show and immediately signed the band to his label in late 1968. While continuing to write its own original material and slowly shedding its reliance on cover songs, the band’s trajectory totally shifted in 1969 when Led Zeppelin engaged on their massive tour that took Canada by storm. The results infused up and coming bands like WARPIG with a sense of new energetic drive and vitality and the band was basically ready for primetime except for the fact they were forced to finance their own recording expenses.

The band finally hit the studio in 1970 and delivered a unique mix of sounds that took all the contemporary sounds of the era into consideration. With a range of sounds that mixed everything from organ driven Deep Purple and the bluesy rock proto-metal of Led Zeppelin along with surf rock, psychedelic sounds as well as a Black Sabbath trick or two, WARPIG proved to craft a diversity of sounds that made other local bands pale in comparison. The band’s sole album would have to wait a couple years for release due to the fact that the label Fonthill had been taken over by London Records in 1971 which renegotiated the contract and delayed the album’s actual release until 1972 well after the signature sound of the band’s recordings had quickly fallen out of fashion. And to make matters worse the band’s attempt to release a second followup was thwarted by the lack of proper management and utter neglect causing a loss of all momentum that ultimately forced WARPIG to call it quits.

That’s really too bad because WARPIG delivered the quintessential hard rock album of 1970 at the time when the psychedelic rock 60s was metamorphosing into the hard rock 70s but the band was a bit more sophisticated than the average heavy rocker of the era and proved to be able to craft more complex progressive compositions as well as capturing the perfect loose wire harder rock sounds like a less structured jam band tackling the triumvirate unification of Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and a touch of Sabbath along with the 60s hangover sounds of Cream and Hendrix. Add to that some forays into the world of classical Baroque and it’s actually quite admirable how experimental WARPIG really was in its musical palette as it fused the fiery passion of unhinged youthful rock with other moments of hi-brow sophistication. The band’s ability to shift from raucous rockers to soulful skillful efficacy were all the right ingredients for a world class 70s rock band to make it to the big time but fate would prove otherwise.

This is an album that didn’t appeal to me at first but as i’ve learned to tune into the zeitgeist of the timeline and accept that this is really a 1970 album that was simply delayed, my perception of this excellent album has shifted dramatically. From the feisty crowd pleasing rockers “Flaggit” and “Rock Star” to the doom-laden Sabbath inspired “Melody With Balls” or the classically infused “Advance AM” (that’s A-minor) and proggy “U.X.I.B.” the album has a lot to offer and best of all the tracks take you on a wild ride that sort of mixes it altogether for the crazed closer “The Moth” that tackles the world of heavy prog with foot-stomping rhythms accompanied by unorthodox time signatures and bouts of freakery. In the end i’ve grown to love this album a lot more than when it sounded like a dated relic from the past that i didn’t quite get yet.