Heavy Riffage - s/d

I was disappointed no one posted to the Budgie thread. Anyway first two (s/t and Squawk) are totally essential heavy riff touchstones (both produced by Roger Bain of Black Sabbath fame). It gets more hit-and-miss after that.

Flower Travellin' Band (the two albums I've heard) are pretty ok. Certainly worth investigating if you're into the sound. The first one suffers from too many covers. Satori is pretty ace; sort of a long suite-like structure, lots of different riffs and changes throughout.

The Blues Creation Demon and Eleven Children is the best heavy riff artifact I've heard to come out of Japan. Uniformly good record. It was there second; I've never heard the first. There's a live one featuring a female singer (Carmen Maki) which I couldn't warm up to.

Sir Lord Baltimore probably my favorite heavy metal group though. There is just a totally insane, over-the-top unhingedness to their two records (Kingdom Come and s/t) that is unmatched. The way a song like "Master Heartache" starts off with the rumbling bass, the guitar coming in crackling with electricity, the brimstone in the singer, the locking-together-of-parts/mini-riffs/changes that get thrown together in a single song - totally joyous stuff. There was a somewhat recent re-ish of their two albums on one cd on Mercury; not still if it's still in print but it's a must.

They only just edge out Australia's Buffalo as my favorite. But the first two Buffalo records (Dead Forever and Volcanic Rock) are right up there in heaviness. The first one is a bit more dark and gothic; they had two lead singers at that point and it makes for strange song-to-song transitions. By Volcanic Rock they were down to just Dave Tice's unmistakable growl (he later surfaced in British pub-rockers the Count Bishops!), and a leaner, chugging sound. Just completely locked in, touched. Unfortunately they went to complete shit almost immediately after that record.

Bedlam - s/t. Short lived trio featuring ubiquitous session drummer Cozy Powell. Their one record a good forgotten slab of heavy British pound.

Bloodrock - I only have the first three (s/t, 2, 3), but they're pretty good examples of what was going down in America at the time. Pretty rote a lot of the time, but generally good rhythmic thrust and every so often they'll come up with a beat or a riff that totally kicks ass.

Cactus - Restrictions is probably their best. Monster Magnet stole whole hog their version of Howlin' Wolf's "Evil" from this album. Their other lps are kind of spotty, veering into lots of blooze type territory; tread lightly.

I'll post some more but I need to grab lunch...

flower travellin' band - satori
transcendantly sabbathoid stuff, with excellent screeching/howling vocals - this album was really ahead of it's time. their first album, "anywhere" is pretty good and has covers of "21st century schizoid man" (the definition of heavy riffage) and "black sabbath." the "from pussies to death in 10,000 years..." bootleg of early FTB demos has them covering zeppelin ('how many more times') and hendrix.

jpt scare band - sleeping sickness
silberbart - 4 times sound razing
pentagram - first daze here (definitely!)
blues creation - demon and eleven children
human instinct - stoned guitar
firebirds/the 31 flavors (blue cheer ripoff exploito acid rock)
bodkin
high tide - sea shanties (despite the title, it's great)
icecross - s/t (1978, from iceland, a little behind the times)
suck - time to suck
dark - round the edges (mainly for "zero time")
warpig - s/t

i'm sure i'm forgetting four or five hundred.

one thing i don't recommend is the rather boring necromandus "necrothology" album. produced by tony iommi. makes no difference, it never gets 'eavy.

These are some standards of the 'eavy ilk mixed with some slightly more obscure parts of the metal lineage

I find "looking for the perfect riff" is a quest, a bit similar to beat-digging culture in that you sort of have to audition a bunch of mediocre records to find one or two really killer cuts. I mean, aside from the fact that hip-hop producers use rock breaks - I'm just talking about great guitar cuts. I think "A New Day Yesterday" by Jethro Tull features one of the greatest guitar riffs, but I wouldn't want to sit around and play one of their records from start to finish (often, anyway).

So yeah, I totally forgot Montrose - very kick ass, the first album anyway. Surely Hagar's finest moment!

There look to be some cool things on ynf's list. Man, I've never even heard of JPT Scare Band, Bodkin, Icecross, Suck, or Warpig. Do you have any more info? I have heard great things about Pentagram and have been meaning to check 'em out.

UFO is cool but I might even recommend a comp of the early stuff (The Decca Years cd on Repertoire is great); some of that jamming from Flying can be a bit much.

Stray is another one I've totally been meaning to check, although I've gotten the impression they're a little more to the "blues" side of the equation.

Dust were fucking great. "From A Dry Camel" is one of the classic epic metal songs. Also, Chuck Eddy made the great point that James Hetfield stole his vocal delivery schtik from the Dust guy (where is Chuck? He should be on this thread!).

Captain Beyond made three albums - only the first two are worthy of consideration. They had the original lead singer from Deep Purple (Rod Price), but he sounds pretty different than he did on the Purple stuff; pretty fully assimilated to the early seventies metal style. Another Monster Magnet connection - they completely stole the riff from the first Captain Beyond lp's "Mesmerization Eclipse" for their song "Twin Earth" from Superjudge.

I actually only got the T2 Boomland cd and I was pretty underwhelmed. Lots of jamming, lots of underdeveloped ideas. I need to listen to it again tho..

duane, don't get me wrong I don't dislike bluesy stuff (and yeah I love the Groundhogs), but it doesn't fry my brain like the stuff that seems to kind of come out of nowhere, you know? I'll look for the Stray recs you mentioned.

Oh, I think that "Immigrant Song" sounding Lucifer's Friend song is from their first record - it's the only record of theirs I have (and it's quite good) but I totally remember noticing that connection. I'm curious to hear their other lps, but the covers and titles (When the Groupies Killed the Blues?) kind of put me off.

Man, I'm listening to the Highway Robbery lp and I wanna revise my somewhat reserved endorsement to say it's pretty fucking great! They could really kick up a storm.

God, I love this kind of shit.

Leafhound - Growers of Mushroom is a pretty good one. Their only album, it's some of the people who were in Black Cat Bone. Very Zeppelin sounding, thanks to vocalist Peter French (who also did an album w/ Cactus). There's at least stone killer cuts - "Freelance Fiend", "Drowned My Life in Fear", and "Stagnant Pool"

I like the Clear Blue Sky record. Supposedly it was some teenagers or something (and I think the same might be the case with T2)? But the guitar playing is pretty good, it's very fluid, almost jazzy with a cleaner kind of tone but still rocking.

Oh, another good British band in that vein is May Blitz. Two albums, s/t and The 2nd of May. I like the first best (1970); not really metal here, but there is a kind of wasted, washed out quality to the sound and production that perfectly evokes the metal vibe as was being formulated by Sabbath (were these guys from Birmingham? they sound it).

Another good German band is Hairy Chapter. There's a cd that compiles their first two records, Can't Get Through and Eyes, on Second Battle. The first record has the best stuff, a couple of extended tracks.

And shit how could I've gone this far without mentioning the Pink Fairies! I love all of their records, but the first two have some silly moments and don't always cohere. Kings of Oblivion is the one to get, and one of my favorite records ever. They added guitarist Larry Wallis, cleaned and sharpened the sound, and just hammer out some glorious riffs and actually highly melodic metal.

Oh god there are others, Third World War, Hard Stuff, Three Man Army, etc. Oh, and talking of bluesy metal, Chicken Shack's Imagination Lady is one the heaviest records you'll ever hear and nothing like their earlier stuff!

haha Jason that might well be the comment more than any others I've heard that'll actually inspire me to check out Red.

I <3 Mr Diamond.

jpt scare band were from missouri, mid-70s but i don't think they were aware that enormously distorted blues-derived acid rock had gone out of fashion. totally massive, noisy jams, not really songs. one track manages to sound almost thrash-metallic.

bodkin were from the UK - early 70s i think. heavy in the way a lot of early 70s UK stuff (dark, clear blue sky, high tide) was, i.e. kinda stupid but great.

icecross were from iceland 78 and managed to sound kind of like an early 70s band verging on sabbathy metal; i bought it at the same time as the s/t toad album and it blew that out of the water (and the cd changer).

suck were south african and work towards my theory (also confirmed by freedom's children) that south africa mostly got gillan-era deep purple, grand funk railroad and sabbath albums. heavy, stupid, i dunno if i'd say "boogie" but it's certainly dumb as dirt. only one original song, incidentally, they also cover "war pigs" on a bonus track.

warpig were from canada and had a kind of deep purple sound, really, circa "in rock." decent, though.

also forgot grand theft from washington dc - totally fucking stupid, heavy jams with stupid lyrics about hamburgers (for two songs) and chicks and stuff for the rest. some of it is unendurable, but "the scream (it's eating me alive)" kills.

i have no idea why, but i've never been able to get into the pink fairies. buffalo were fucking great, though.

sundar no they were a early 70s band on vertigo

Yeah like I say about the Fairies, the Wallis album is the best, the first two are an acquired taste. I guess I just gave 'em a shout out cos I dig them so. I'd never describe them as dark - which I realize is what Jason was originally asking for. That British sense of humor is pretty integral to the band. I don't know, there is just something about Wallis' melodic sensibility (see also the Motorhead records he's on and his solo stuff) when wedded to those chugging riffs that really grabs me.

yeah!
(carry on gents)

You could just skip ahead to The Melvins, which have both riffage and abounding dark weirdness.

I owe you an e-mail about the last tape, Duane, I know I know.

Yeah, Fly By Night is chock full of goodness. "Anthem", "Best I Can" and "Beneath, Between & Behind" - what a killer start to a record.

No.

also, i picked up the grand theft "hiking into eternity" cd reissue - it's kind of confusing, but it has the album and some tracks from a second album (which were included on the vinyl version i heard) and some kind of crappy basement demo stuff. definitely worth it for my money, a couple of the demo tracks are good, the sound is much clearer than the vinyl and the liner notes are pretty funny (intentionally). "we are a natural progression from where we were before."

speaking of, also got Uriah Heep's "Pretty 'eavy, Pretty 'umble". not too shabby for being a band most consider pretty suck.

and why did i pass on deep purple the first time around. it's so obvious, but 'machine head is a great album'. as is the first blue öyster cult. it's so funny to listen to stuff that you've know about forever but just didn't think was going to be any good. when you finally hear it and like it, you just want to kick yourself in the ass.

i went home and scoured my mom and stepdad's record collection. i gave Cream a second chance and gosh darnit, they're actually damn good. i never wanted to like them because they were so "classic rock" and because erik clapton was a part of the band, but they were pretty damn heavy for their time.

some other things from their collection that i've been digging on (all pretty obvious). the yardbirds, mountain, little feat, humble pie. actually i only really like the yardbirds out of these four, but they each have their moments. the last three were a little too much boogie blues shit that i don't really care for.

i found a $5 vinyl copy of the third Captain Beyond album "Dawn Explosion" yesterday. should i not pick it up. is it as bad as stormy/diamond says upthread?

but i just wanted to say euclid's version of "gimme some lovin'" off of heavy equipment is pretty fucking heavy. like a hobbled boogie riff stomping all over the place, barely sounds like the original.

if anyone wants to check it out.

George Brigman's Jungle Rot LP is essential, as is anything by Terry Brooks. This stuff deviates from the NWOBHM / heavy blues stuff focused on upthread, but will totally knock you out.

also, for God's sake, JasonD, wherever you are, if you're still looking, search for both Endless Boogie LPs!

Had a solo album, really hard to find on their own label. Did a split on Man's Ruin just before Man's Ruin went out of business. You can still find that. And now they have a new double CD, which is actually the best thing in the catalog. It's split into two parts, "Time Again" and "Magnet Heart Suite" which sounds like a fifteen-minute mini-rock opera. The first CD sounds like early Rush (with Rutsey on drums). The second is also powerful. The drummer takes a lot from Keith Moon and you can hear things drifting over that must come from being influenced by bootlegs of Who live shows or "Leeds."

Quick! Buy it for 8 cents!

http://cgi.ebay.com/BACKBITER-CD-GET-TOGETHER_W0QQitemZ4761050719QQcategoryZ307QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

good guess - 1970! guitarist was in lazy smoke. recently reissued by skyf zol, pretty good stuff.

Hurdy Gurdy
This Danish trio (originally called the Boom Boom Brothers) began life as Hurdy Gurdy during a London performance in 1968. Their first and only eponymous album recorded in '71, is considered one of the top 10 Danish rock LPs of all time. The furious guitar playing of Claus Bohling is definitely the band's secret weapon, deftly maneuvering through heavy progressive, blues and jazz. The band brings to mind the first Jethro Tull album, and the influence of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath can also be heard, but Hurdy Gurdy are not mere 'sound-alikes', actually their sound is rather unique, particularly in the Eastern-influenced sitar-heavy tracks. Eight tracks. Miniature gatefold LP sleeve. Akarma. 2002.

The Necronomicon "Tips Zum Selbstmord" reissue hits the spot too- maybe they should reunite and tour with Necronomitron?

Fair to good. Backbiter half is better. First cut by Elope is decent, too.

his postage is 4 dollars. he sends stuff media mail which is probably 50 cents a cd. or less. i haven't done the math and i don't have a scale handy. he probably buys 5000 count job-lots of used CDs from liquidators at 5 or 10 cents per. he probably buys mailers in counts of 5 or 10 thousand at a penny a piece. so, he's looking at a profit of $3.30 or $3.40 a cd. If it sells for anything more than 8 cents, like a dollar or two, his profit is 5 or 6 bucks. His feedback is over 100,000!! that's a lot of merchandise. it's walmart on a smaller scale. small margins, high volume.

hahahah seriously i'm psyched to meet him. As far as him making a racket, we get pretty 'rock' these days, so we drown out most detractors / hecklers. A tip we picked up from the accompanying book in the Sabbath box set. Also, remind me to tell you our DeKalb story - the now infamous Dekalb story. It involves a screaming kid.

Anyway, a couple years ago there was an interesting story on this in the LA Times business section, of a Cali-business, maybe this one, that had set up its shop on eBay. The story tried to be favorable but it was a successful but still bleak business model. It worked to support a family, but the entire family -- even the kids -- had to be put to work stuffing mailers, buying bulk used CDs, maintaining "catalog," and typing stuff into eBay every night. They had no time for anything else. Vacations were unthinkable.

Even with a friction-less business, and computer vending isn't really that, there's no profit in selling anything at that price unless you can backend a mark-up somewhere.

I am curious about where the bulkloads of 5 cent CDs come from. I'm guessing there's a tap in as liquidators to labels that have gone under and have warehouse stock, or totally unsuccessful acts with boxes and boxes of overrun, or small stores which have failed, gone into bankruptcy and are letting going of stock at a penny on every dollar. Is that it?

all of the above and then some.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1000-CDs-All-New-Wholesale-Music-CD-Assorted-Lot_W0QQitemZ4762158212QQcategoryZ46500QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

What a bleak operation.

In reference to Euclid: You know, one of the Net aggregators on pricing on used vinyl had someone trying to sell a vinyl copy for $345???

I used to frequent this place called the Q-Mart in Quakertown, and it specialized in used and overstock vinyl in the late-80's. Still exists. Chuck goes to it, can be a frightening place to first timers, particularly when they stumble into the vendor tent out back. In fact, even though he may not remember I probably used to yack about it to him during the writing of his first book on metal. It was certainly the source for info on scratch sheets I sent him. It's were I picked up Groundhogs "Hoggin' the Stage," now known as their "Leeds" recording. "Unlistenable!" he declared of the tape I sent him or some facsimile obtained thereof.

Anyway, the guys who manned resale record booths at Q-Mart were scary. Always looking to extract some ridiculous price for a scratchy copy of something that never moved more than 5000 or things said to be rare that moved much more (example, Captain Beyond album with the 3-D cover.) To make it bearable you had to lean forward into them during negotiation for exchanges in piles or records.

Yes. "Meat Pies Have Come But Band Ain't Here Yet." "Repossession Boogie."

"HOT -- WATER!"

*nernerenernernerenerrrr*

As dali says, Soundgarden could have easily covered this in their earlier years.

and hey everybody - coloured balls! aztec just reissued ballpower and heavy metal kid, aussie lunk rock'n fever. recommend the former first despite the title of the latter. i'm totally in love with it. you have to love a band that has a 10+ minute instrumental with lots of oscillator shrieking that is called "that's what mama said" (instead of, say, "cosmic solar trip" or something) AND a 1.5 minute chuck berry-qua-punk tune featuring the lyrics "oh baby/won't you make up your mind/what you gonna do when i get the cops on you?"

Some Humble Pie is Rippin', though I don't know if it'd be sufficiently heavy for you.

mr orian, you are nuts.

Why is the 1973 Granicus album not on Spotify?

It is now I was listening to it yesterday. I have a CD of it somewhere too.

I was wondering if Stonewall would be something people were aware of at the time of this thread. Actually recorded a few years earlier than 76 and released without the band's knowledge as a tax loss. Great l.p. anyway i keep wondering if the association with the bar was unconscious. Pride is about to happen.

Sudden Death were also of note. Entered a competition looking for the US answer to Black Sabbath, came 2nd. Recorded an l.p. released in hindsight that is pretty great has a still from a Mexican horror film on the cover and was called Suddenly.

Did Toad, Gift, Silberbart, Fire, Ainigma, Armaggedon get mentioned?