Scarlett O'Hara

Have you not seen the Woodstock DVD? It's 5 hours long but a brilliant watch. They mainly hung out naked and swam in the lake, I don't think anybody drowned!

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Trollheart

I think he's referring more to the fact that most of those who attended the festival would have had, shall we say, an open attitude to personal hygiene?

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Scarlett O'Hara

Oh yeah like hairy armpits and such. I could handle it as long as I had 3 showers afterwards!

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Unknown Soldier

Thanks, it's especially impressive when one of my basic write-ups gets praised, I must be doing something right.

Most of the bands that have featured here, are just like any other bands. Besides having plenty of highs they've also had plenty of lows, but in the case of Deep Purple and Uriah Heep it was quite drastic given the quality albums that they had put out in 1972. In fact Deep Purple's Who Do You Think We Are is a far blander album than Uriah Heep's Sweet Freedom.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Scarlett O'Hara

Honestly I wish I could write reviews like you.

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Trollheart

Yeah, so do I. One of the best and well-informed writers here, no question. You want to check your facts? Forget Wiki, go to Unknown Soldier!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Unknown Soldier

They're not as hard to write as you think. All you need is a decent knowledge of the album that you're going to write, backed up with some factual stuff and then adding your own personality. But the most important ingredient imo has to be a level of passion for what you're doing.

Also it's a bit of trial and error as well, but once you get things right, it's fairly easy to apply yourself.

This is pretty impressive praise, coming from Trollheart the finest writer of the English language on the forum.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

No, I'm referring to the fact that I wouldn't be surprised if the rowdy youngsters hadn't filled the lake up with beer cans, urine, and other various sorts of filth.

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Unknown Soldier

Overview
The Montrose debut album is one of those highly revered hard rock albums of the 1970s and it is often rated so highly, that you’ll find it on all kinds of essential listening lists from that period, in fact in the 1980s Kerrang voted it as one of the best albums ever. The Montrose debut definitely falls into the category of being a more basic straight-up hard rock album than a complex affair and it’s largely centred around Ronnie Montrose’s stunning guitar work and the hard rock vocals of a young Sammy Hagar. The band like a lot of bands at the time just basically fell into place, as its components were all largely familiar with one another. Montrose was very much Ronnie’s band hence the name and taking the prime position on the album cover, and he had already been a session guitarist on albums by acclaimed artists such as Boz Scaggs and Edgar Winter. Then there was Sammy Hagar who had already been in several Californian bands and who would of course eventually go onto a successful solo career, and then onto even wider fame with Van Halen in the late 1980s. The rhythm section of Bill Church and Danny Carmassi completed the four man roster. The album would be produced by Ted Templeman who had worked already with the likes of Captain Beefheart and the Doobie Brothers, and so in essence the band had a well- known producer to work with at the helm, Ted Templeman would of course go onto produce some Van Halen albums later on in his career. So with this chemistry in mind, the Montrose debut should’ve launched the band into the big time and not the lowly 133rd position it achieved on the US Billboard Album Chart in 1973! It would end up being, one of those albums that would achieve a great deal of fame many years later……. thanks to Ronnie Montrose’s reputation as a guitarist, but even more so thanks to the fame that had been achieved by Sammy Hagar and a growing interest in his back catalogue. The initial problem that the band had when recording this album, was the age old story of the record label not really knowing how to promote them! Amazing really, when you consider Montrose were essentially just a basic hard rock outfit and what you saw is what you got and they were hardly going to shock audiences as Alice Cooper did. So for such an ‘acclaimed’ hard rock classic album, why have I only placed this at position 10 on my yearly list? Read on and find out.

Sammy Hagar- Vocals
Ronnie Montrose- Guitar
Bill Church- Bass
Danny Carmassi- Drums

Production- Ted Templeman

Album
Rock the Nation- No this is not Van Halen, it’s Montrose! The opening track is as the title suggests a real blasting rocker and it works so well with Sammy Hagar’s infectious vocals, we also get our first taste of Ronnie Montrose’s biting guitar as well. This is the perfect opening track for an album. Bad Motor Scooter- Carries through with the energy of the opening track and a track written by Sammy Hagar. The song starts off with the revving of a motorbike engine and also finishes off with one. Space Station No.5- Might well be the heaviest track on the album along with the title track and probably the best as well. Without doubt the most interesting listen on the whole album, a classic tune. I Don’t Want It- Basically a three minute filler, not bad but filler it certainly is. Good Rockin’ Tonight- A jovial hard rocker brought alive by the blistering guitar work of Ronnie Montrose, a delight to listen to. Rock Candy- Another real heavy number and actually starts off sounding like a Led Zeppelin number, certainly one of the stronger tracks on the album with its sluggish super heavy feel. One Thing on My Mind- A strutter of a song and could’ve been sung by David Lee Roth, as could've most of the songs found on the album. Make it Last- A great album closer and a very good song high on melody and has an extremely catchy anthemic feel to its overall sound.

Verdict
The first thing you notice about this album is just how well produced it is as you’d expect from Ted Templeman. There is real clarity to the proceedings in general, but the hard rock raunch remains intact throughout. Then there is Sammy Hagar’s infectious voice and Ronnie Montrose’s biting guitar to consider as well and these two aspects are the winning factors on the album, as well as Sammy Hagar’s love of speed as in motorbikes, which seems to resonate throughout this album! In fact this album sounds very similar to not only Sammy Hagar’s work with Van Halen, but also the earlier David Lee Roth period as well. This though is no surprise, as Montrose may well have been the single biggest influence on Van Halen anyway! Now as I’ve already said, the majority of the songs on this album, are a kind of no-thrills 1970s hard rock and Montrose were one of the first bands to present this style with real honesty. This honesty is shown in songs like the anthemic sounding “Rock the Nation” the perpetual energy of “Bad Motor Scooter” and then on easy going songs like “Good Rockin’ Tonight” and “One Thing on My Mind” But it’s songs like “Space Station No.5” with its gargantuan riff, along with the sluggish heaviness of the title track “Rock Candy” that are the album’s true highlights, in fact had there been more songs like these two on the album, it would certainly be a lot higher on this list! The album though has a big downside for such an acclaimed album, firstly the singing and especially the guitar of Ronnie Montrose, often mask the quality of a lot of the material on the album. In short a lot of the songs in themselves, are not worthy of being on such an acclaimed album as they tend to be basic compositions centred around a certain amount of repetition, sure it’s still a very good album, but a classic I certainly wouldn’t say so and I believe the nine albums that I’ve listed in front of it to be better albums overall. Secondly there are the compositions, where the majority are written by either Ronnie Montrose and Sammy Hagar, and to be fair most of these songs hardly have any differences between them, which leads to very little diversity for the album in general, in fact it’s only when all four band members work together on the title track, that we get one of the album’s most accomplished songs! Despite this, this is an album that should still be picked up and listened to, especially for Ronnie Montrose’s biting guitar. At this time, he and Buck Dharma of Blue Oyster Cult may well have been the two most stunning American guitarists for this type of music. As for Sammy Hagar, well he has always had his critics, but his voice and performance on this album are crucial to its overall feel and his final vocals on the album, have him singing ‘keep on rocking’ which perfectly sums up the spirit and feel of the album

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Big Ears

Both Montrose's first s/t and second album, Paper Money, are both great, but Ronnie Montrose went on to form Gamma which were at least as good, if not even better. I would say Sammy Hagar was well established before Van Halen, but I think he joined through the Ted Templeman connection and for the big money. Ronnie could not put a foot wrong for me, whereas Chickenfoot showed the decline in Sammy's creative output. I was sorry when Ronnie died, particularly because of the tragic circumstances of his illness, but also because he took the prospect of another Gamma album with him.