Album Pick of the Year
02. Budgie In for the Kill! 1974 (MCA)
Hard Rock
Living ain't easy it opens your head!
Overview
For the second year running the trailblazing Welsh trio known as Budgie, would have to be contented with another second spot in a row!
In for the Kill would sit shoulder to shoulder with their previous album
Never Turn Your Back on a Friend as the two essential Budgie releases! Album for album there isn’t too much difference in the focus and the direction of the band, as on their previous album
Never Turn Your Back on a Friend, the band’s sound had completely gelled into place and the recording of
In for the Kill just simply confirms that fact. The band though, had gone through a major loss in long-time drummer Raymond Phillips who decided to leave the band and his place would now be taken on the drum stool by the largely forgotten Peter Boot, who it has to be said does an amiable job on the album. Two of the songs on the album, would go onto become favoured cover songs by future metal giants in Van Halen and Metallica “In for the Kill” the title track and “Crash Course in Brain Surgery” would be the two songs that were covered. These are certainly two great indicators of just how influential Budgie were within metal circles and its development in the mid-1970s, and also shows why the band were constantly namechecked. After the departure of drummer Raymond Phillips, both Burke Shelley and Tony Bourge would dominate the songwriting and in turn would give us the band’s tightest songwriting so far. If anybody doubts just how influential Budgie actually were at this time, just listening to Tony Bourge’s loud pulsating guitar and Burke Shelley’s big thumping bass should alleviate any doubts concerning this. Also up until this album, Budgie had also blessed us with some great imaginative song titles and with the exception of the previously recorded 1971 song “Crash Course in Brain Surgery” the rest of the cuts on the album take on a more straightforward approach concerning song names, with the aim of possibly giving the band a more serious image. One again this classic album is decorated with another great Roger Dean designed album cover.
Burke Shelley- Bass/Vocals
Tony Bourge- Guitar
Peter Boot- Drums
Production- Budgie
Album In for the Kill- With its bluesy start and heavy bass, this is very much an archetypal Budgie song and with a running time of over 6 minutes, the song goes through a couple of tempo changes, and is a real workout by the band on how to jam with real intensity! The song was regularly covered by Van Halen back in their early days.
Crash Course in Brain Surgery- The quality of the previous song continues through to one of the best known songs from the album. This song was originally released back in 1971 as a single and would later be covered by Metallica on their
Garage Days Revisited EP in 1987.
Wondering What Everybody Knows- A delightful song which brings down the tone of the album and sounds like a Beatles meets Jethro Tull type song and hell…..even the song title sounds like a typical Beatles song!
Zoom Club- With its slow moving but crunchy start, the band serve up another real driving number and at times the song sounds like Aerosmith’s “Lord of the Thighs”. I’ve no idea if this is just pure coincidence, or one of these bands copied the other! But at a glorious 10 minutes, it’s the longest song on the album.
Hammer and Tongs- A slow heavy bluesy pounding number and yet again this stands as one of the best tracks on the album. The song goes through some impressive musical changes, that are both subtle and haunting at the same time.
Running from My Soul- Probably the least impressive track on the album, as it’s basically a formula type sounding blues number, but it’s still a decent song in its own way.
Living on Your Own- The lengthy album closer that has a running time of around 9 minutes and at times it can’t quite decide whether it wants to be an instrumental or just a normal vocal directed song!
Verdict
So just how good is
In for the Kill? Firstly Tony Bourge’s guitar always sounded like it could provoke some kind of gutsy reaction, rather than just following a standard play and then repeat pattern played by so many others. Secondly Burke Shelley helped to re-define the bassist/vocalist in the heavy spectrum and with his wimpy sounding vocals, he may have certainly prompted Geddy Lee that he could do it as well! As for the album, Just listening to the title track alone, shows the confidence and ambition of the band, as they match the previous album
Never Turn Your Back on a Friend song for song. For a pulsating six minutes on this track, the band serves up one of their trademark crunching bass heavy renditions and in many ways nobody quite did this type of song better than Budgie around this time. The second track “Crash Course in Brain Surgery” is one of the really dynamic highlights of the album, with its pacey hard driving feel! The band as was customary for them around this time, then give us one of their softer interlude type numbers and in “Wondering What Everybody Knows” with its Beatlesque feel, this may well have been one of the best softer tracks that the band ever did. The A-side of the album is finished by “Zoom Club” which again is just so good with its driving power chord and draws similarities with the Aerosmith track “Lord of the Thighs” which was released the same year. Then there is the heavy bluesy grinding of a song like “Hammer and Tongs” and band on this track, show us that the blues are very much alive and well on the hard rock scene circa 1974. If the album does lose the odd point or two, it might come on its lengthy album closer “Living on Your Own” which despite having some highlights especially in its execution, might not really be the closing track that this rich album truly deserves, as at times it feels too much like a light-hearted instrumental track when Burke Shelly decides not to sing. Overall
In for the Kill, has Budgie showing us that their mastery of blending blues rock into the hard rock meets heavy metal genre was second to none around this time! If I had to pick a winner between the previous
Never Turn Your Back on a Friend and
In for the Kill, I’d go for the latter even though the previous album normally pegs top spot from most hardcore Budgie fans.
In for the Kill is without a doubt one of the best albums served up by the heavy genre for the 1970s and shouldn’t be missed out under any circumstances, because lets face it this is one mother of a heavy album!