VARIOUS ARTISTS

VARIOUS ARTISTS     “Yeah, Man, It’s Bloody Heavy!”

By Dr. Abner Mality

When the music featured on this comp was written, I was still in grade school. I’ve walked the Earth for 62 years now, so that gives you an idea of the time period we’re talking about: the birth of heavy music! Lee Dorrian of Rise Above Records and CATHEDRAL fame has teamed up with his fellow proto-metal enthusiast Austin Matthews to dive deep, deep, DEEP into England’s early heavy music scene, dredging up bands of utmost obscurity that have literally not been heard since the 70’s. It’s a fun project and apparently just the first of several records...let’s see what the result is!

We have here 10 tracks from English and Scottish acts such as HEAVYBOOTS, AGATHA’S MOMENT, MACBETH PERISCOPE and CRIMSON EARTH. When I said “obscure”, you can see I wasn’t exaggerating. Many of these clips have been taken from original tape masters and painstakingly restored. Even so, the sound is what you would expect from local bands of the early 70’s, so be ready for that. As for musical styles, there is of course very early BLACK SABBATH, but I really detect a lot more influence from CREAM, LED ZEPPELIN and even Brit-rock like THE KINKS, THE YARDBIRDS and yes, the harder side of THE BEATLES. Toss in some prog, folk and straight blues and you have the musical stew that these bands marinated in.

To be perfectly honest, I think you can hear the reason most of these bands never made it past the pub stage. There’s varying degrees of heaviness, but most of the tracks here are based on very simple riffs and structures...they just don’t quite have the quality of the “big boys” of the time. Like B.O.M.B.’s “Won’t You Take Me?” from 1971...a kind of diluted hybrid of SABBATH and BLUE CHEER. Another thing I noticed is that the lead vocalists almost sound identical...the vocal range and stylings of the singers is very much in the Brit-rock vein with hardly any distinguishing characteristics. Most of the singers are quite competent, but Ozzy and Robert Plant stood out from the pack because they were DIFFERENT.

Acid guitar licks get a look in on just about every track and will have you nodding your head if you like 70’s hard rock stuff. The drumming sounds so natural and organic on these obscure old tunes...it’s really sad that everything today is so digitized and compressed. It sounds like human beings were behind the kit here.

The first song “Who Knows, Who Cares” from HEAVYBOOTS and the hallowed year of 1969 is perhaps my favorite of the set. For one thing, it really is HEAVY and is very much a SABBATH/CREAM mashup of high quality. As stated before, “Won’t You Take Me?” by B.O.M.B. has the heavy edge but songwriting is not that strong. MACBETH PERISCOPE’s “Witchcraft”, the first of two tracks with that name, is much more a psychedelic rock song but with ominous lyrics and jamming guitar. AGATHA’S MOMENT brings us “Bad Trip”, which is more of the same, chiefly distinguished by a strong guitar solo. JESSICA’S THEME (terrible name for a band) tries for a SABBATH vibe on "Witchcraft" but doesn’t quite make it...very much rooted in 60’s rock instead of 70’s proto-metal.

Much more successful at the “evil” vibe is 1971’s GREENFLY and their track “Satan’s Daughter”. You can hear some of the rumblings of what would become the NWOBHM in this gloomy and foreboding song. CLEMEN PULL’s “Kamikaze Pilot” starts with a burst of speed and energy, but the last third of the track devolves into a noisy, disconnected mush. CRIMSON EARTH, along with HEAVYBOOTS, deliver the strongest cut of the comp with “Heathen Woman”...this one reminds me of BUDGIE and very early NWOBHM. LIVING DEAD’s “Chasing Shadows” has a pretty nice CREAM/SABBATH type riff and vocals that are just a bit different than the rest. The comp wraps up with the fast and frantic “Destroyer of Life” from ZACARIAH and 1976...it’s short, almost thrashy but rather messy.

“Yeah Man, It’s Bloody Heavy!” is a great historical document from the mists of time, but don’t go into this expecting to find colossal tracks that equal the best of SABBATH and ZEPPELIN.

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