Early 70's Underground Heavy Metal

SAHB Healer wrote:

Kmorg, I forgot the band Titanic, which was I think a Norsk/Anglo hybrid. I really love them. "Eagle Rock" is a great album, reminds me of one of my top 10 bands the German/Brit hybrid Epitaph.

How the HECK did I forget Titanic?? Great band. I couldn't find any soundclip anywhere though.

Be sure to check out Junipher Greene too, if you ever get the chance.

YouTube is your freind. Here are 2 of my favorite Titanic tracks!

Wow great thread ! I am always on the look out for great very hard rock / metal & heavy progressive music from the 70's. My only problem with this kind of stuff is after you discover the bands and hear a few tunes where do you go to get the actual releases as most of this stuff is super rare and out of print?

True, PWW. I just asked for Titanic on CD today, and the store owner told me he had them in years ago, and would check for them again. But it's not like you can just go out and buy them in regualar shops.

Yeah alot of this stuff is very hard to attain. Usually OOP and rare even back in the day, although alot of the stuff is being reissued now which is great.

This label has alot of the reissue's.

http://www.rockadrome.com/superstore/


Still there's alot of stuff you can't get unless your willing to compete with cashed up collector's so the only alternative is to download. There's some great blogspot's were some great albums are posted.

I can give you some links to some good one's, just pm me.

Another one, this time from the UK. Great great album, must have....


Fuzzy Duck - Fuzzy Duck (1970)



http://www.myspace.com/fuzzyduck70

Another album, this time from semi-legends Bang. Think of them as a sun baked American answer to Black Sabbath.....


Bang - Bang (1971)



Recommended Track: The Queen
http://www.myspace.com/bang

I listened to about 15 of these albums this weekend. Fun! Here's my top ten list, off the top of my head. The easy thing in the USA is that virtually everything can be considered "underground" as there were only 8 or 10 early heavy bands that really cracked our tiresome "Classic rock" canon. Very few people know Budgie, for example. Hawkwind might even be considered underground here!

Heaviest Undergound as of 12/31/72
1. Bang S/T
2. Budgie S/T
3. Poobah- Let Me In
4. Night Sun- Mournin'
5 Tear Gas- S/T
6. T2- It'll All Work Out in Boomland
7. Dark- Round The Edges
8. May Blitz- S/T
9. Lucifer's Friend-S/T
10. Jerusalem- S/T
Tucky Buzzard- Warm Slash (tie) While Jerusalem (Ian Gillan produced!)is clearly heavier and darker both; I still think Tucky Buzzard (Bill Wyman produced!) is better and more "effectively aggressive" (a boxing term). But my lists and tastes are gonna be like that. I usually prefer the heavyness that comes from prog dynamics over the up front blues bombast of bands like Blue Cheer, Cactus, Leafhound, and Mountain. That's how come,T2 and Dark made this list. The 1972 cut-off excludes Buffalo's "Volcanic Rock", which whould be #1 if I went into 1973.
I missed a few. Alamo S/T for one, which is very similar to Goliath's "Hot Rock and Thunder".

Great list Sahb, although that's heaviest what about best as in my list?

Heaviness is very subjective, but i think Night Sun mashes all those into the ground in terms of heaviness. Only Vol 4., In Rock, Master Of Reality and Paranoid are heavier at that stage in the game imo.

Maybe it's that apocalyptic grinding organ sound.

My list went by heavy stuff that I like (as long as it had at a certain amount of heft). Night Sun is as heavy as anything there for sure. But it is subjective, Take for example the album Freedom's Children "Astra"; it's not really all that loud; but it's "heavier" than anything on my list in a way. Other heavy albums by way of over the river and through the woods and in the back door might include Flower Travelin' Band "Satori" or Alphataurus S/T.

SAHB Healer wrote:

My list went by heavy stuff that I like (as long as it had at a certain amount of heft). Night Sun is as heavy as anything there for sure. But it is subjective, Take for example the album Freedom's Children "Astra"; it's not really all that loud; but it's "heavier" than anything on my list in a way. Other heavy albums by way of over the river and through the woods and in the back door might include Flower Travelin' Band "Satori" or Alphataurus S/T.

Oh yeah Freedom's Children is just plain weird and creepy, some kind of different heaviness.

But for pure ear bashing bludgeon, Night Sun takes the cake. Kinda scares me sometimes as well.

How 'bout couple of hard rocking bands which featured Alice Cooper guitarist Dick Wagner? The Frost and Ursa Major.

SAHB Healer wrote:

How 'bout couple of hard rocking bands which featured Alice Cooper guitarist Dick Wagner? The Frost and Ursa Major.

They didn't really do much for me.....although the last Frost record is pretty cool despite it's well fey cover which belies the music in there.

See what i mean....

Ouch. Doesn't exactly have hard rock written all over it does it?

SAHB Healer wrote:

Ouch. Doesn't exactly have hard rock written all over it does it?

You know i think they were on a label that didn't have much idea in the promotion of hard rock....but who did in 1970!.

Warner Brothers had a pretty good grasp on it pretty damn early on actually.
Deep Purple , Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper and more were all signed to them at that early date.

Another one, the very Deep Purpleish Warhorse (understandable because they included a former member of Deep Purple). Fledgling metal magic here......


Warhorse - Warhorse (1970)



http://www.myspace.com/warhorsetheoriginal1970

Another great record of fledgling Texan Metal. Texas had alot of these great bands which i guess is no surprise since Budgie is quite popular in just that state. Bloodrock amazingly had a top 40 single with D.O.A. and eventually was certified Gold with their second album but are still amazingly unknown.....


Bloodrock - Bloodrock (1970)



http://www.myspace.com/bloodrockisback

The thing about Bloodrock is that (like Warhorse) they had a spooky side in addition being a hard rocking band. In fact "Fantastic Piece of Arcitecture" on the first album might be my favorite classic Bloodrock song. I never really cared for DOA, but a I guess that was what most people remember about them.
I liked all their albums though, even after John Nitzinger was out. In fact "Passages" is one of my favorite prog albums ever. Doesn't sound anything like the Bloodrock people know and love, but it was melodic prog ahead of it's time.

I only care for the first 2 predictably.

Like i said before Texas had a habit of producing these great metal bands in the early 70's.

Budgie i remember hearing were/are hugely popular in Texas and inparticular San Antonio.

How bout Nitzinger S/T and Nitzinger-One Foot in History. I still play them both a lot.

I love the S/T but the follow up not so much......I'm right in saying they had a leaning towards Hawkwind amongst their sun burnt psyched boogey hard rock.

Yeah, their first one has some psych angles to it ("Hero of the War"). I like both albums but I play the second more because it sounds more Texas to me.

This one is cheating but it's the damn heaviest thing to it's date excluding the MC5's live effort, mashes Black Sabbath's debut into the ground through it's relentless guitar attack. Those guitars are so savage and flayed.


High Tide - Sea Shanties (1969)



Listen to Death Warmed Up
http://www.myspace.com/therealhightide

Yeah, it's good. But it's almost too proggy even for me.