Unknown Soldier

Overview
A German based band who were quickly cited as being early practicioners of blending both heavy metal and progressive rock together. I say heavy metal and not hard rock, because Lucifer's Friend were one of the few bands around at this time that weren't overly influenced by the blues and their influences seem far more focused on classical influences than a lot of their counterparts. In effect they followed on from the heavy organ and keyboard approach of bands such as Iron Butterfly, Spooky Tooth, Atomic Rooster and Deep Purple and laid down some real proto-metal groundwork. Lucifer's Friend would have a sound that featured heavy keyboard textures, often combined with very dark lyrics and their nearest musical contemporaries at the time were Uriah Heep whose debut album also came out the same year. In fact the link between the two bands would always be there, as Lucifer's Friends vocalist John Lawton would much later on, go onto become the vocalist for Uriah Heep. Lucifer's Friend were in essence a German pioneer band from Hamburg and they were fronted by British vocalist John Lawton. The members of band had met in Hamburg whilst in different bands and had decided to work together, first under the name of Asterix and then as Lucifer's Friend. After quickly bonding, the newly formed band went into the studio to put out their heavy and often complex organ driven sound, little did they know that they would record such a cult classic that is still revered today by listeners of heavy metal. Also the album cover was so distinctive with the short bald guy with what looks like a hook for a hand, next to the tall shifty looking one and standing in a pool of blood. The album cover most definitely suited the music.

John Lawton- Vocals
Peter Hesslein- Guitar
Dieter Horns- Bass
Peter Hecht- Keyboards
Joachim Rietenbach- Drums

Production- Herbert Hilderbrandt

Album
Ride the Sky- Starts off sounding amazingly like Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" not sure who copied who here, but then John Lawton kicks in and the song turns into a very competant rocker. Everybody's Clown- A fast moving track which is a true exercise in all the elements of the band working together. John Lawton on this track sounds similiar to a future Klaus Meine. Keep Goin- A real stand-out track full of heavy dense guitar and organ sections that produce an almost heavy plodding feel, before breaking into various musical sections. Toxic Shadows- A complex and lengthy composition of several minutes, as the band flex out and relax at the same time. Free Baby- A superb mid-album rocker, that is full of up and down shifts in sound and mood, again the band really flex out here. Baby You're a Liar- Organ driven and the song has some really truly crunching guitar moments. In the Time of Job When Mammon Was a Yippie- An eccentric interlude and a great song title. Lucifer's Friend- The album closer which again features their highly original song arrangements and power injection, along with some great Doors sounding organ throughout the song. An additional track on some copies of the album is the great but short instrumental Horla.

Verdict
One of those full throttle sounding albums, full of dense sounding guitars combined with an organ/keyboard overload if you like that kind of thing. The listener can't help but to be impressed with the technical playing of the band, all of which was highlighted by the superb singing of frontman John Lawton who really had a melodic wail. The similiarities with contemporary rivals Uriah Heep was most evident as well, from the organ driven sound to the style of the song compositions and then onto the vocal approach of vocalist John Lawton, who sounded and screamed similiar to Dave Byron of Uriah Heep. But that was where the similiarities ended, because from the word go Lucifer's Friend were far more compact and focused than Uriah Heep were at this stage. It's just a shame that they couldn't build off this superb debut and spent the rest of the 1970s, focusing either on dour sounding or overtly progressive rock releases, along with getting distracted by their fellow German Krautrock bands. Despite these future drawbacks, the band always excelled as expected in the instrumental department. Uriah Heep later stole the success that really should've been theirs but that's rock music for you! The band though, always kept a cult following and were always popular in their native Germany and helped set the stage for bands like the Scorpions a few years later.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Overview
For a lot of bands at this time their third album was often pivotal. It either meant that the band was already established commercially, because by their third album they often hit the height of their commercial appeal. Or on the other hand, a band's first two albums hadn't achieved the commercial success that had been expected and the pressure was often on the band to then produce that breakthrough on their third release. Free most definitely fell into the second category and melded their creative powers to finally achieve the commercial success that was expected. This had actually been achieved after quite a lot of inner-group tension that had plagued their previous album, where Paul Rodgers had tried to exert greater control over the band, but by Fire and Water a compromise had been reached and most of the band compositions were often jointly written, by both Paul Rodgers and bassist Andy Fraser. For the album, they took the heavy blues aspects of Tons of Sobs and the tunnelled melodic tunes from their sophomore set Free to write what was often seen as their most polished affair yet. They would also produce the album themselves, after having their first two albums produced by Guy Stevens and Chris Blackwell. The album was their big commercial breakthrough largely thanks to the single "All Right Now" one of the most famous hard rock tunes from the 1970s music scene. The album would clock in at just 35 minutes, which for such a seminal album might seem a bit on the short side compared to some of their rivals. The album cover is great as well and features a great shot of the band.

Paul Rodgers- Vocals
Paul Kossoff- Guitar
Andy Fraser- Bass
Simon Kirke- Drums

Production- Free

Album
Fire and Water- The swaggering title track has Paul Rodgers sounding as soulful and dominant as ever, a real gem of a track. Oh I Wept- The type of heartfelt composition that the band did so well and another very strong track. Remember- A typical Paul Rodgers and Andy Fraser penned track, just the sort of thing that they would excel with in Bad Company. Heavy Load- One of the showpiece tracks on the album and some amazing guitar work by Paul Kossoff. Mr.Big- Kicks of the B-side and is famous for being one of the best tracks that Paul Kossoff ever laid guitar down on, an amazing piece of work without a doubt. Don't Say You Love Me- I always felt that this was one soft track too many on the album, but is still well sung and penned. All Right Now- The most famous song by the band, it has that instantly recognizable feel about it and is kept fresh throughout with several changes in tempo. As a footnote I was never actually a huge fan of the song, I guess it just got so overplayed over the years that it ended up bothering me.

Verdict
A highly polished rock album full of well crafted songs that still stands the test of time. The band produced themselves on this album with some help from a young Roy Thomas Baker and the production sounds superb, with the singing and instrumentation tight-knit throughout. Amongst Free fans, this is often seen as their best album and indeed it is excellent, but on a personal level I slightly preferred the 'freer' sounding (excuse the pun) of their debut album Tons of Sobs. Around this time and for a brief period, Free shared the same table as Led Zeppelin in terms of popularity and were also at the top of the commercial pile. They were also headliners at the well known Isle of Wight festival, which usually attracted around 600,000 people every year! After this album the band were now under pressure to produce both a follow-up album and a single to match "All Right Now" which sadly they couldn't, as their follow-up album Highway and the single "The Stealer" both also released in 1970 both bellyflopped, to be honest it was one lifeless and boring album as well, effectively seeing their commercial aspirations coming to a premature end. They would of course though, come back with one more excellent album a few years later in Heartbreaker, before Paul Rodgers and Andy Fraser would both go onto greater success in Bad Company.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Overview
Up until now all the albums and bands featured, have had heavy blues and psychedelic rock influences, and gradually they have taken those influences to their logical and heavy conclusions throughout 1969 and 1970. But it would be four guys from Birmingham that would reshape those blues and psychedelic tendencies, into a much darker vision that would go on to dominate metaldom as we know it. This darker vision would be based around even tighter guitar riffs, a throbbing rhythm section, morbid doom-laden visions, along with medieval and futuristic themes. The band truly found a hidden malevolence in the blues, that they then fully exploited and then glued the whole thing together with strong occult influences. Now some of these aspects that I've mentioned, had already been displayed by other bands and albums both featured and not featured on here so far, but Black Sabbath would be the first band to pull it all together in a complete morbid package. Their music would display the bleak industrial influences of their native Birmingham and demonstrate itself in all the aforementioned characteristics. But their signature sound would come through in Tonny Iommi's deceptively basic tuned-down guitar riffs and Ozzy Osbourne's trademark banshee shriek, along with Geezer Butler's throbbing bass so essential to the Sabbath sound and last but not least Bill Ward on the drum stool. Now anybody looking at this review, may well ask themselves why is this album only no.6 on my year listing? I'll explain that further on and it's with good reason! So with all the aspects of the band in place they went with producer Rodger Bain into the studio and in record quick time they cut this debut album which was a true group effort. Producer Rodger Bain would of course go on to become a pivotal metal producer of the early 1970s and produce further Black Sabbath material. Finally for any real 'aficionados' out there, check out the debut Coven album which came out the same year and just see how influential that was on this Sabbath album.

Ozzy Osbourne- Vocals,
Tony Iommi- Guitar
Geezer Butler- Bass
Bill Ward- Drums

Production- Rodger Bain

Album
Black Sabbath- From the doom-laden sound of falling rain and the morbid sound of church bells. Ozzy then sings "What is this that stands before me" basically asking the listener has he heard anything like this before, the answer was probably not! The song then churns through its doom-laden feel before speeding up. The song is without doubt one of the classics in all the Sabbath canon and is worth the entry ticket alone. The Wizard- Second track which is focused around some heavy percussion work, slide guitar by Iommi and harmonica by Ozzy, and is lyrically focussed around Gandalf and a local drug dealer the band knew, a stunning track. Behind the Wall of Sleep- A dense track heightened by some great playing. N.I.B- Starts off with a bass solo by Geezer Butler before kicking in with a trademark riff which dominates throughout. This is a song about Lucifer and another essential Sabbath classic. Side-B kicks off with Evil Woman (Don't You Play Your Games With Me)- A cover of a song put out by the band Crow and the obvious single from the album, strangely left of the US version of the album. Sleeping Village- A song typical of the later part of the album, which gives itself over to a series of lengthy jamming instrumentals. Warning- Another cover and this time it's a song from Aynsley Dunbar's Retaliation, this is 10 minutes of instrumental filler if ever I saw and heard one. Re-issues of the album usually feature Wicked World- Certainly better than either "Sleeping Village" and the "Warning" with some crunchy guitar bits to boot as well, to compliment Ozzy's Jethro Tull type singing here. It should be noted, that there are a couple of different variations on track selection on this album between the UK and US versions. I've reviewed the original UK version here.

Verdict
Simply put the Black Sabbath vision that would shape metal for years to come was born here on this album and most of the essential ingredients were laid down in just the first four songs. The A-side of songs are quite simply an amazing selection of Sabbath originals that have constantly stood the test of time and resonate with the dramatic riffs and sound of the band. BUT the album as a whole, is let down by the often unfocused and overly long filler tracks that form and dominate most of the B-Side. At this time jamming instrumentals were still the rage in rock music, but to pass the acid test they had to be done well and in the albums I've reviewed so far, bands like Grand Funk Railroad, High Tide, May Blitz and Lucifer's Friend etc were so much more accomplished than Black Sabbath at this type of thing and knew what they were doing. I would say that had the album finished after side-one, the album would have made the top 3 on my selection list, rather than a top 6 placing. But taking all that aside, this album is without doubt the true 'birth place' of heavy metal as we know it. Gradually of course throughout the 1970s and 1980s bit by bit, heavy metal would lose both its blues and psychedelic roots, and it would be down to future artists like Danzig who would help to bring the blues back into metal in the 1990s. Without doubt one of the most essential releases of the whole decade despite a dodgy B-side and needless to say music critics at the time loathed both the album and the band. The band would of course go onto even far greater musical heights within the same year, with the release of the seminal Paranoid album, which is of course is far higher up my list for 1970.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Musicfanatic

More. More! MORE! Louder! FASTER!

Plankton

Great journal Unknown. The only thing missing (for me anyway) would be a couple Ytube vids of each artist. I'm lazy like that.

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Unknown Soldier

This is a good point and was thinking about this myself. What I might do is add vids for the albums reviewed. Either per entry or as a top 10 playlist for the year.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Plankton

It would flow better for the reader, to listen to the tunes as they are reading about them. Just my o tho.

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Unknown Soldier

I'm adding about 4 videos to each album bit by bit now, luckily I don't have that many to do. Have done 1969 and will add 1970 mañana.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

I'm definitely gonna go through this whole thread someday soon when I'm in the mood and just check all these bands out. Great thread that fills a legitimate void in my understanding of old school/proto metal.

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Unknown Soldier

When this thread reaches the 00's I'll probably be asking for your help and advice. Best way to go through it, is to check out each album and give your opinion.......if you've got the time that is.

__________________
Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History