Unknown Soldier

Overview
Truth and Janey had one of the great and unexpected debut albums of the year, despite the fact that nobody noticed them apart from their faithful local followers! The band hailed from Cedar Rapids Iowa and had formed as a band as far back as 1969, which probably explains why the band still had a great fondness of blues rock a la Cream and Jeff Beck amongst others, in fact the band had partially taken their name from the Jeff Beck album Truth and from the surname of their frontman Billy Janey. The band had gradually built up a reputation for themselves, after touring earlier on in the decade with the likes of bands like Mountain and then they came to greater prominence whilst touring with the Blue Oyster Cult. Success though never came their way and their debut album No Rest for the Wicked was actually recorded on a local independent label called Rockadrome and mostly sold in and around Iowa. Sadly a big label would never come in for this bluesy Iowa band and Just the following year in 1977 the band would finally split, with frontman Billy Janey adding ‘Lee’ to his name (not very original there) and going onto release several blues albums (surprise surprise) in the 1980s and 1990s (which I’ve never heard of) The band and album itself were certainly something of a culture shock in first instance and on the face of it, were at least half a decade out of date by the time of the debut release No Rest for the Wicked. Firstly the concept of the power trio which the band were, had more or less died out as the cool thing to do and the band’s heavy blues influences and bluesy covers were certainly a thing of the past as well, so adding these two things together would probably have the band as no more than a novelty act circa 1976 but the band were anything but that! Without doubt this was one of the heaviest and most startling releases of the year and a born cult classic in every sense, I’d say anybody reading this journal and looking for two relatively unknown or forgotten American cult classics of the decade, that can still do the business and also blow your speakers, then look no further than this album and the Sir Lord Baltimore debut released several years earlier (which is fully reviewed on my 1970 list) Also I think of that album cover above as having a real bleakness about it that would have done a future grunge rock band proud.

Billy Janey- Guitar/Vocals
Steven Bock- Bass/Vocals
Denis Bunce-Drums

Production- Steve Bock

Album
Down the Road I Go- A heavy opener that has a Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” feel about it, the song then emerges into a blustery powerhouse of a song and it’s a stunner without a shadow of a doubt, before then speeding up again at the end. The Light- A melodic style shuffle of a song, before it crunches and beefs itself up and then goes on to sound like a staple track from the band. I’m Ready- A revved up Willie Dixon cover and sounds exactly like so, in fact the band sound exactly like Wishbone Ash here…………..which means they sound pretty tasty! Remember: a Child/Burning Walls- A multi-part almost progressive rock track, that had the likes of Yes and Rush to name a few of not doing it any better! The band amazingly keeps this whole powerhouse of an song going for its allotted time, full of contrasting passages and jazzy breaks, and then fuck me the band pick it up with the guitars again! No Rest for the Wicked- The dynamic title track amazingly sounds like early Rush here….. on second thoughts it actually sounds better than early Rush ever did! All Above Us- A song deep rooted in west coast American psychedelia of the late 1960s and again the band get this half electric/acoustic number spot on and it’s one of the best on the album. Ain’t No Telling- The second blues cover here and it’s a speeded up cover of the Mississippi John Hurt track and again they don’t put a guitar-string wrong. My Mind- With a slightly drawn out intro, the song emerges into an almost Rush sounding “By-Tor and the Snow Dog” style before beefing the track out with some stellar guitar work later on in the song. Midnight Horseman- A heavy bluesy intro here and another stalwart album track in full motion. Around and Around- Not a cover but the band’s attempt to do straight-up rock ‘n’ roll, not bad but not to the height of what we’ve already heard earlier. Under My Thumb- A cover of the Rolling Stone’s classic and I’ve read on a few sites where the cover is not overly liked, personally I like it. Straight Eight Pontiac- Another one of the band’s bluesy sounding covers, that is actually not a cover but one of their own renditions.

Verdict
From the word go Truth and Janey lay down the gauntlet, in that this is a heavy band with a strong bluesy feel about them. The volume and epicness of the album’s opening song “Down the Road I Go” is enough to blow the socks-off most other bands out there and its quality powers through to “The Light” where the band show us their grasping of melody and the song turns out to be a near on six minutes epic. Then there is the near on nine minute magnum opus “Remember: a Child/Burning Walls” which when I first heard shocked me, as I wasn’t expecting a blues rock band as such, to have such mastery of putting out a nine minute progressive rock track that didn’t rely on extensive jamming……hell this is a song to make your hair curl, in fact I’d call this one of the finest tracks by a heavy band from the whole decade! In fact Budgie would’ve been one of the few bands around at this time to do justice to this song. Then the band tackle heavy psychedelia, or better said they then take the essence of psychedelia and dress it up in a heavy style on “All Above Us” where they basically sound like they’ve been doing this type of sound for years on end! Then there is the title track “No Rest for the Wicked” which is another stellar track that combines great all-round dynamics and a melody worthy of being a title track. The band though show their age in their choice of covers, using songs originally composed by bluesmen Willie Dixon and Mississippi John Hurt, but luckily instantly make them their own. It has to be said that when a band does covers as well as Truth and Janey, who the hell cares whether these choices are several years out of date and the band also include an estimable cover of the “Under My Thumb”. In fact the only area where the band does lose some brownie points, is in its own two overtly blues tracks, that actually sound very much like covers rather than originals but both are buried deeply away on the b-side of the album. The power of this album largely comes from Billy Janey’s guitar, the powerhouse bass of Steven Bock and intense drumming of Dennis Bunce! The album clocks itself in at over fifty minutes, making it a long album for its time considering that it’s not a double album. In fact I’ve heard a number of so-called classic albums from this era, that hold less quality over their thirty to forty minutes than Truth and Janey put out over fifty! Listening to this album makes you realize, that had the band made the breakthrough that they should’ve done, half the other acts putting out similar music may as well had given up and gone home!

__________________
Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History