Blarobbarg

This is exactly how I feel. As a side note, Bill Ward is probably the most influential drummer out there for my drumming style, or at least for my fills.

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Unknown Soldier

You play the drums? Who are your main influences?

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Blarobbarg

Bill Ward and Mike Clark are the first names that pop to my head for my main influences. Although I couldn't name any particular drummer, my typical beats are all very hip hop influenced stuff. And my fills tend to be very free jazzy, a la Milford Graves. My influences are diverse, to say the least.

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Unknown Soldier

Also Check This Out........
This is an extra album from the same year that I've chosen, that either just missed the final cut, I think could be of interest, or even from a different genre that could be of interest or influence on the hard rock/heavy metal genre.


A German band who only managed to record two albums and who often got categorized under either progressive rock or krautrock for some dubious reason. The fact is, that they were far too raw to ever be considered progressive rock or krautrock. They also came under scathing criticism and one review I recently read, stated that this was a garish and shoddy album highlighted by some terrible singing and playing. Well just imagine a singer that sounds like a very drunk Robert Plant and Ian Gillan and that’ll give you an idea and as for the terrible playing, I would actually call it some great guitar debauchery with some great proto-stoner sounds! The reviewer stated that this album should be avoided at all cost, but I guess he didn’t dig the band’s sloppy harmonica playing and exaggerated guitar riffs either! Personally I think this is a great listen and always brings a smile to my face. The riffs are there and it’s a great example of a proto-metal act just playing out and having a good time. Interestingly enough, the band have garnered something of a cult following over the years, not a huge one but enough to show that they had been greatly under-appreciated at the time. The band only put out two studio albums, this album and the previous Eyes album released the previous year.

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Albums that missed the cut.........
Other good albums worth checking out that were also released in 1971, but weren't quite good enough to make the top 10 and are listed below in no set order, so the best of the rest:

Humble Pie
Rock On 1971
An album that just missed the list at the expense of both the Mountain and Budgie albums. Nevertheless this album has some stand out tracks in “Shine On” and “Stone Cold Fever” this would be the last studio album with the original line-up.


Jeff Beck Group
Rough and Ready 1971
The final early phase Jeff Beck album worth listening to, before he started moving away from a heavy sound and into more virtuoso guitar territory and experimentation. Also featured a new line-up from the previous two albums.


Uriah Heep
Salisbury 1971
Like their debut album this effort has some great early Uriah Heep classics as they moved into a more cohesive hard rock/prog rock style. The album though was let down by its lengthy title track on side-two.


Leaf Hound
Growers of Mushroom 1971
A blues rock band at the heavier end of the spectrum, who were overshadowed by their better known rivals, but this album is still a decent listen and has an early stoner rock feel.


Dust
Dust 1971
A competent hard rock album whose garish cover probably doesn’t reflect the music, they would put out their best album the following year. The album contains the epic "From a Dry Camel" and is solid throughout.


Sir Lord Baltimore
Sir Lord Baltimore 1971
Despite lacking the raw abandon and heaviness of the debut album, this mishy mashy affair does offer some good Sir Lord Baltimore material....if you're prepared to wade through the mire.

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The Album
Often seen as a token commercial venture by the record company, after the much maligned Free finally split in April 1971 (even though the split would be short-lived) The band had split primarily due to the growing antagonism between song-writers Paul Rodgers and Andy Fraser, who along with Paul Kossoff’s severe heroin addiction brought the mechanics of the band to a virtual standstill. But the final straw must have been their poorly received fourth album Highway released at the tail end of 1970, which had been seen as a huge flop at the time! This live album was recorded from various UK locations throughout 1970 and on its initial release, it only featured eight tracks falling short of what was actually recorded by producer Andy Johns. This was a common occurrence with some live albums of the 1970s, where the record company was looking to cash-in rather than giving out value for money, just think of the initial release of Cheap Trick’s At Budoken as a perfect example, this Free album got a long awaited re-issue in 2002. This recording by Free captures a band, that excelled like the previous entry in this section Grand Funk Railroad in a live environment. As I’ve mentioned several times, the heavy blues interpretation of Free was quite distinct to how Led Zeppelin translated it. Free always put melody first and just used a heavy feel to give depth to proceedings and were always focused on a balanced execution rather than blitzing the audience! There are mixed reviews of this album and like any of these patchily put together live albums of the time, it can be all hit and miss, but I think this is a great example of the band live. The material covers their first four studio albums, two of which Tons of Sobs and Fire and Water have featured on my main “Top Ten Lists” whilst the other two albums Free (none on the original release of this album) and Highway were on my “Albums That Missed the Cut…..” section.

Paul Rodgers- Vocals
Paul Kossoff- Guitar
Andy Fraser- Bass
Simon Kirke- Drums

Production- Andy Johns
Sunderland and Croydon 1970

There was no decent recordings of this album, so just used other live recordings from the time.

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Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

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[
The Album
Humble Pie were born for the live performance and the band really flex out on this whopping double set of 72 minutes! This is a mammoth live album and I always considered it to be a cornerstone of 1970s live albums and was therefore surprised to see a couple of recent reviews that gave it negative opinions. I guess that the negativity from some quarters, may well have come from the fact that two sides of the album are just taken up with the massively extended blues covers of “I Walked on Gilded Splinters” and “Rollin Stone” by Dr.John and Muddy Waters. In fact the vast majority of the album was actually made up of non-album material which may have gone against the band. Personally I think the band do real justice to these covers and the albums ranks as one of the better Fillmore East live albums over the years, with the album’s highlight being a rousing cover of “I Don’t Need No Doctor”. Playing at Fillmore East New York was probably one of the most prestigious venues to play in at the time, after the venue had entered into the annals of rock history, with the Allman Brothers legendary double album performance there earlier on in the year. Prior to this album, the band had just released Rock On (on my Albums that missed the cut…. section for the year) and it was an album which was seen as something of a departure in style from Humble Pie’s previous boogie-blues to a more harder rocking style. This gradual change in styles, resulted in prompting guitar virtuoso Peter Frampton to terminate his association with Steve Marriot and co. and embark on a solo career, making this live album the final recording with the original line-up intact.

Steve Marriot- Guitar/Vocals
Peter Frampton- Guitar
Greg Ridley- Bass
Jerry Shirley- Drums

Production- Humble Pie
Fillmore East 1970

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Trollheart

Holy crap man, that's a lot of work! You trying to outdo me for the title of "journal most worked on" or something??

Bring on 1972!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Unknown Soldier

Don't worry, nobody can touch you when it comes to journals on here. I've still got some more stuff to add before I move onto 1972.

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Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Nearly all the bands featured on here so far, have either come under one or two of the above categories, but the one thing they had in common was their ‘heavy leanings’ qualifying them for this journal if their albums were good enough. Now here like in the “Hard, Heavy and a Classic” section are a selection of artists and albums, that come under primarily non-heavy labelling, but they still put out an album or two that was heavy in its feel. These bands are joined by a couple of eclectic choices that simply didn’t fit into a genre or two. This list could be endless with albums and is therefore open to interpretation. I’ve included some that I think need to be mentioned, whilst others have been brought to my attention on here, but all are worth a mention.

For example, Just looking at the components from the demise of Cream, both Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker went onto form their own projects, with Eric Clapton going onto the most acclaim. His work with Blind Faith and Derek & the Dominos are all examples of borderline stuff that could have been included but hasn’t. The same could be said for the Who, whose discography is full of epic rock tunes all highly influential on a lot of the bands that will be featured.

The amount of blues rock bands around at this time was simply staggering and for that reason I’ve only included in the thread those with the heaviest inclinations or those that would go onto embrace hard rock per se. So blues rock bands in the style of Canned Heat, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull and Fleetwood Mac are not going to qualify, while other bands such as Savoy Brown, The Killing Floor, Toe Fat, Blodwyn Pig and the future Foghat, Rory Gallagher and ZZ Top could for either an album or two, depending on your subjective opinion. At the heavier end Grand Funk Railroad, Humble Pie and Free all qualified with ease and of course Led Zeppelin represented the heaviest end of the whole blues rock spectrum.

Blues based artists with heavy leanings worth listening to, starts off with Wishbone Ash. Now Wishbone Ash as far as I’m concerned are one of the finest and most talented bands to have ever come out of the UK. Britain's answer to the Allmans but with a much heavier slant and they were one of the first British bands to master the art of the dual guitar attack, which of course would go onto become a pillar of metal and hard rock in the shape of Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden and far more recently with Machine Head. Wishbone Ash mixed their dual guitar attack in with harmonious leads, gentle vocal tendencies, first rate songcraft, experimentation, heavy jamming and unforgettable licks. They could go from heavy and energetic songs, to dreamy and distant sounding tracks in the blink of an eye. They would go on to find their true calling on the prog classic Argus, but their first album saw them at their heaviest, with their second Pilgrimage 1971 and its more more experimental feel, seeing them move into a more progressive rock direction. Their superb debut of which I’ve put two of its stunning cuts below, is a must listen to, along with one from Pilgrimage.

I'm wondering why your face no longer shines.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History