Album Pick of the Year
05. Sir Lord Baltimore Kingdom Come 1970 (Mercury)
Hard Rock-Heavy Metal
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Time to turn up the volume motherfuckers!
Overview
All Music describes Sir Lord Baltimore as 'America's first bona fide heavy metal band' a label which would pass unnoticed for many a year. In fact the band only gained the recognition that they deserved in the 1990s, with the then emerging stoner rock movement, prompting critics in some music circles to refer to them as the 'Godfathers of Stoner Rock'. Sir Lord Baltimore themselves, were a Brooklyn based three piece power-trio in the vein of fellow American acts Blue Cheer and Grand Funk Railroad, but unlike their peers who had built-up their reputations on fearsome self-assured live performances, Sir Lord Baltimore as a young live band were far from being self-assured in a live environment, a fact that sadly proved to be their early undoing as far as reputations went. In 1970 they had opened up for both Black Sabbath and Humble Pie on their US Tours and had performed under par. It has often been documented that the band had real problems early on in their career, harnessing their awesome raw power in a live environment. Luckily, they didn't a problem in harnessing that power in a studio environment and a lot of that is down to producer Mike Appel and especially mixer Eddie Kramer. Their debut album is a mixture of fast paced R&B taking a cue from MC5 here and their Detroit sound, highly distorted guitars and bass, along with heavy Jimi Hendrix psyche angle. Like Texas based band Bloodrock, the band's vocalist John Garner performed his vocal duties from the drum stool a real rarity at that time, this is especially interesting giving the amount of howling that vocalist John Garner made along with his drum duties. As stated earlier on this thread, critics on both sides of the Atlantic often blasted this kind of music, but in Sir Lord Baltimore's case critics just didn't know what to make of them, as they were just so ahead of their time. Aong with the previous years High Tide album
Sea Shanties, this is an obscure classic that needs listening to.
John Garner- Drums/Vocals
Louis Dambra-Guitar
Gary Justin-Bass
Production- Mike Appel
Album
Master Heartache- Starts off with an awesome bassline, before moving into a very Jimi Hendrix style song both in sound and mood.
Hard Rain Fallin- A typical cut by the band, full of their fearsome playing and savagery.....just sit back and enjoy the show.
Lady of Fire- Spoofy sounding track, but it really has plenty of proto-metal aspects kicking around the song.
Lake Isle of Innersfree- The album oddity with its proggy title and its almost Baroque feel and harpiscord, it could've been recorded by any number of non-heavy bands around that time.
Pumped Up- Back onto the distorted and bludgeoning hard rock with "Pumped Up". I guess anybody listening by now, either really digs these proto-stoner sounding guitars or doesn't.
Kingdom Come- Side two kicks off with the 6 minute title track and this is errrrrrr heavy metal circa 1970. This is pure head pounding stuff and boy this is one heavy number, my favourite track on the album.
I Got a Woman- Not exactly filler but nothing special either.
Hell Hound- Competant track again full of great vocals and playing.
Helium Head (I Got Love)- Simply blistering at times, with its crazy pace, blazing guitars, high distortion and without doubt another album favourite, a must listen to track.
Ain't Got Hung on You- The album started on a manic high and finishes on one as well.
Verdict
This is an album of sheer unbridled aggression (the band didn't do finesse) pounding instruments, fantastic playing, heavy distortion and man those heavy basslines seriously kicked butt too! All the elements and wildness that today's music listener would expect to find in a proto-metal album are here and they're here in real abundance. The music probably stands as the heaviest song for song that has been reviewed so far and the instrumentation is totally manic at times, and John Garner's wholesome voice puts some real muscle to the proceedings as well. Apart from the actual music, there are the song titles to take into consideration as well. I mean with song titles like "Helium Head" "Hell Hound" and "Lady of Fire" these were Judas Priest and NWOBHM song titles about several years too early! and chuck in the AC/DC sounding title "I Got a Woman" and the future generic metal sounding "Pumped Up" and we're well away in the song title department as well. The biggest question that arises with this band, is had they had the business acumen and focus of rivals Black Sabbath who emerged at the same time and shared a number of musical traits with this band. There is a distinct possibliity that people could be speaking about Sir Lord Baltimore in the same breath as the mighty Sabbath. Whilst Sabbath went from strength to strength almost from the word go, Sir Lord Baltimore would sink into virtual obscurity after their second album flopped (it was expected to do well) and Mercury dropped them from the label. The band just drifted along until their final demise later on in the decade. As mentioned earlier, it wasn't until the 1990s that they were re-discovered and the band gained the privileged 'cult status' label. I first heard heard this album several years ago and it got me all hot and excited listening to it back then, it still raises my temperature even today knowing that something so heavy existed back in 1970.