Unknown Soldier

Also Check This Out........
This is an extra album from the same year that I've chosen, that either just missed the final cut, I think could be of interest, or even from a different genre that could be of interest or influence on the hard rock/heavy metal genre.


This album of course, comes under the category of interest and influence, as its one of the most innovative and influential albums ever recorded. It of course, gains all its plaudits and fame from being one of the most pivotal albums in the history of progressive rock. But at times this album was just freaking heavy and powerful for its time, despite the fact that it was mostly folky in feel. But it can be enjoyed by anybody into music at the heavier end of the spectrum as well. In fact many years ago, I saw a review of this album where somebody had described King Crimson as "heavy mental" an obvious pun on heavy metal, surely in reference to the amazing "21st Century Schizoid Man" Here is an album where the listener can enjoy both faces of the early King Crimson sound, which go from dark and overpowering pretensions to gentle musical passages that demonstrate great beauty. Probably around 99% of current prog-metal bands got their musical grounding with this album. I know a lot of people wouldn't consider putting this album up on this thread but I can see the necessity. As for how good this album is, well it would easily challenge Led Zeppelin for the top two spots.

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Unknown Soldier

Albums that missed the cut.........
Other good albums worth checking out that were also released in 1969, but weren't quite good enough to make the top 10 and are listed below in no set order, So the best of the rest:

Humble Pie
Town and Country 1969
Almost entirely acoustic based and shows a different side of the band, with some great work by Peter Frampton. The band really wouldn't do anything like this ever again. It pains me to leave this off the list.


Free
Free 1969
More subdued than than the debut set as Paul Rodgers would assert greater control over the band and in "Free Me" they put out one of their best ever tracks. This is great rock music for a Sunday afternoon drive.


Jeff Beck Group
Beck-Ola 1969
This album is certainly nowhere near as essential as his debut solo album, but Beck-Ola does have some good material on it and great guitaring as you'd expect from Jeff Beck.


Leslie West
Mountain 1969
Often thought of as the first ever Mountain album but this is officially classed as a Leslie West solo album. The album is highlighted by Leslie West's throaty voice and his bluesy guitar playing.


Spooky Tooth
Spooky Two 1969
Early Pacesetters, whose thunder would be stolen by Deep Purple (who beat them to the list as well) Bassist Greg Ridley would soon jump ship to Humble Pie and go on to greater success in Humble Pie.

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Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Howard the Duck

well, that's strange

have you actually heard it back to back?

only 21st Century Schizoid Man is actually any "heavy"

most of it is whimsical folksy stuff

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Malaise is THE dominant human predilection.

Unknown Soldier

This is the section for a classic borderline album, that I feel belongs in with another genre, but is always worthy of being mentioned here. Any album I place here, is easily worthy of a placing on my top 10 list. It's either a highly acclaimed album of just a forgotten or underrated gem. I'll try and include at least one album per year in this section and in some cases possibly two if I can't just decide on one album.

Primal nihilism from an underground sensation.

The Album
I won't waste words introducing the Stooges's frontman Iggy Pop as he's one of the most iconic figures in the history of rock music, but what I will say is that Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton and Dave Alexander are often forgotten, given the huge shadow that Iggy Pop cast over the rest of the band. As for the Stooges themselves, let's just say that after figuring in different line-ups, the Stooges really started to get things together when Iggy saw Jim Morrison performing in Detroit and realised this was what a frontman was all about and the rest was history as they say! So when the Stooges hit the ground with their debut album in 1969, nobody had heard anything quite like it, with its primal nihilism, fuck flower power attitude, howling garage classics and psychedelic tendencies. Like the Doors and the Velvet Underground before them, they took a dark view on proceedings and the legend of the band was built up over just two albums. This debut album and its follow-up Funhouse released the following year, firmly established the Stooges as a cult classic of their time. The album starts of with the Rolling Stones influenced "1969" where Iggy sounds just like Mick Jagger and then onto "I Wanna Be a Dog" which as far as I'm concerned, is probably the first out and out punk song. "We Will Fall" is a lengthy psychedelic track and a favourite of mine from the album, even though some might find it lengthy and "No Fun" which is another proto-punk classic. Now the rest of the tracks "Real Cool Time" "Ann" "Not Right" are a weaker selection of songs than the first four tracks but they do have their moments. The best latter album track is surely "Little Doll" and John Cale was one production duties.

No other band at the time with the exception of Detroit neighbours MC5 packed so much aggression into their sound. To differentiate, I'd say MC5 had focused their aggression around a genuine anger at the state of things and revolutionary ideas, whereas the Stooges just came across as aggressive energy. You could say the Stooges were all about an out and out attitude, making the proto-punk label with heavy psychedelic tendencies the most accurate label for the band and not the hard rock label which was far more suited to MC5, and for that reason alone MC5 remain on the main list and the Stooges here. So how good is this album? Well the album lacks songcraft, the musical ability and singing at times are limited and there are some weaker tracks littered around the place. But as the album is not about songcraft, or musical ability......who cares! Where the album gains it's plaudits is in its attitude, originality and the feel of a group unwilling to compromise their sound for commercial reasons. The album belongs in any music collection.

Iggy Pop- Vocals
Ron Asheton- Guitar
Dave Alexander- Bass
Scott Asheton- Drums

Production- John Cale

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Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Guybrush

For the record, I think King Crimson's inclusion makes perfect sense in this thread.

Great thread, Unknown Soldier

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Something Completely Different

Unknown Soldier

Glad you like it and will be kicking into 1970 with another ten albums very soon.

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Metal Wars

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Unknown Soldier

If both 1967 and 1968 were the years of heavy fondling, it was 1969 that finally saw hard penetration and the baby being conceived, but it was in 1970 that the baby would truly be born and it was one hell of a birth! Led Zeppelin had already in 1969 set the yardstick of excellence for all heavy music with their two groundbreaking albums and they along with Grand Funk Railroad had become two of the biggest heavy acts around (they were already selling millions in the USA). Other talented bands which I've already mentioned in 1969, were now starting to get more acclaim amongst music fans and were becoming far more cohesive with their overall sound, despite the fact that huge sections of the music media were still deriding a lot of music at the heavier end of the spectrum. As for 1970 the year that will now be looked at, this would now see 'heavy music' gain even more momentum as the already established 'heavy acts' were now two and three albums down the line, and the heavy blues and psychedelic influences of most of these bands were now being fused into a more tighter hard rock sound. The year would also see, a whole host of very interesting new bands with some truly great albums and whilst some of these bands would never achieve the popular acclaim that they were surely due, their future influence would be highly noticeable to anybody listening to these albums. But 1970 would truly be remembered as the arrival of Black Sabbath, who would of course go on to become the most revered band in all metaldom and also be the first band to try and break out of the heavy blues and psychedelic inflluences of most of their counterparts. As a year 1970 produced even stronger albums album for album than 1969 did, with Black Sabbath's first two albums easily making the cut.

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Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

John Bonham had a rather dubious moustache, wouldn't you say?

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Unknown Soldier

Those taches were very much the in thing back in the 1960s and 1970s. The following link explains some of this. As a lot of well known celebrities had them at the time.

BRING BACK THE ‘STACHE. | MEN, MUSTACHES, MARVELS AND MISSTEPS « The Selvedge Yard

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Metal Wars

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Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

A long forgotten power-trio.

Overview
In the late 1960s power-trios were all the rage on both sides of the pond, this was largely due to the success of bands such as the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream and Blue Cheer to name just some. Throughout the following years, power-trios would gain even more momentum and many of these power-trios would also become acclaimed artists in their own right as well. As always there is a flip side to the coin and this would see a number of talented power-trios either missing out on deserved success, lasting for just a short time or becoming largely forgotten, May Blitz would certainly fit into this flip side of the coin category. May Blitz themselves were a British based hard rock band, whose brand of hard rock had a heavy acid-fuelled tarnish about it and they really knew how to play as well from the word go. Like a lot of power-trio bands, their aim was to make the biggest possible noise with just a three man line-up a task that they were easily able to achieve. Like a lot of bands, they had originally made a name for themselves on the UK pub and college circuit before finally getting their record deal with Vertigo. Their best known member at the time, was a certain Tony Newman who with his jazzy infected style had previously played drums on Jeff Beck's highly acclaimed Ola album a couple of years earlier, Canadians James Black guitar and vocals, along with bassist Reid Hudson completed the line-up. With this line-up the band would go into the studio to release their debut album, not to everybody's taste but certainly to mine.

James Black- Guitar/Vocals
Reid Hudson- Bass
Tony Newman- Drums

Production- May Blitz

Album
Smoking the Day Away- An epic kick-off that gradually builds its way through this 8 minute song, with plenty of melody and a catchy chorus before the band submerge themselves into a series of some highly impressive jamming. I Don't Know?- Kicks off with some nifty guitar licks before moving into a steady rocker. Dreaming- Slow and heavy, before it disintegrates into a drug crazed jamming session and then they take their foot off the pedal again, a truly epic song. Squeet- Starts off as a straight forward track before shooting into another extensive and intense jamming session, this is true pussy licking music.....just love it! Tomorrow May Come- A very subdued song and a very good track, this was the sort of thing that Wishbone Ash would become masters of. Fire Queen-Dominated by Tony Newman on drums. Virgin Waters- The album finishes with this highly distinctive song, with some great guitar overtones and spoken sections by James Black, before the whole thing gradually increases into an intense proggy style crescendo and then fades with the sound of running water.

Verdict
A highly self-indulgent album full of acid-fuelled jamming and very much a product of its time, as said before it's not for everybody, but if you like your music based around heavy jamming and a certain amount of unpredictability then you'll be impressed with this album. The album itself faced disappointing sales at the time possibly due to its haphazard and very self-indulgent feel. The album though, has some very impressive proto-metal tones that are noticeable throughout, along with some really impressive playing and the already mentioned heavy jamming, that was surely influenced at the time by the style of Grand Funk Railroad. Like other bands at this time that failed to make a commercial breakthrough, May Blitz instead of coming back with a tighter sound for their next album, decided to move into a more proggy and space rock direction and this was done with some rather dubious results. May Blitz occupied an interesting period of heavy music history and sadly time would forget them, but they are really worth listening to on this their debut and most honest release.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History