Unknown Soldier

The Album
After Rod Evans was told to unceremoniously leave Deep Purple back in 1969, this talented individual finally got around to forming a supergroup along with drummer friend Bobby Caldwell and ex-Iron Butterfly members Larry “Rhino” Reinhardt and Lee Dorman. With this talent on show, the new band introduced us to their own brand of progressive rock. This brand was was infused with liberal doses of both hard rock and psychedelic rock, along with some nice jazz touches and a unique space rock feel…….does this sound interesting? Well interesting it certainly was and this superb debut set would in my mind, give us one of the most dense albums ever recorded by a ‘heavy band’ from that era. Captain Beyond would never go on to attain the heights of popularity that Deep Purple had attained, but that doesn’t dilute from their quality in any way, as this album is a gem and really deserves several listens to discover its quality and sink into the listeners mind. I’ve also always found from this era, that both British and American heavy bands often had a different sound to one another and about nine times out of ten I can usually tell which is a British band and which is an American band from this era! In the case of Captain Beyond, the immersion of its individual components gives us a band that has an American soul to it but with the focus of a British band and it comes off as a delight. The album is co-written between Rod Evans and Bobby Caldwell, but sadly after this release Bobby Caldwell would depart and later show up in the band Armageddon and there is also guitar courtesy of guitar maestro Rick Derringer as well.

This album is heavy make no mistake about that, it has a dense sounding feel and certainly needed individuals of real talent to create that dense sound. The actual album seems to drift along in several searing directions, firstly this could be between the riffing and the drumming, or it could be between the complex time signatures that frequent a lot of the songs and let’s not forget the great hooks laid down by Larry Reinhardt as well. On top of this, the songs simply segue into one another almost seamlessly and certain riffs and vibes are utilized yet again to great effect on other tracks, thus creating an album of continual continuity. The a-side of the album tends to deal with the heavier more dynamic tracks, whereas the b-side gives more over to the progressive stuff and has a leaner feel vocal wise. The whole album feels like one terrific voyage and gives the listener a spaced-out feel amongst all the complex hard rock tightness that the band had laid down here. The band would follow this album up by the equally impressive Sufficiently Breathless, which was released the following year but had a far mellower feel to it. Not only is this album superior to anything that Iron Butterfly put out, but also superior to the three albums that Rod Evans did with Deep Purple. This is one of the very best albums from its time period regardless of genre.

Rod Evans-Vocals
Larry “Rhino” Reinhardt-Guitar
Lee Dorman-Bass
Bobby Caldwell-Drums

Production-Captain Beyond

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