METAMORPHOSIS

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IB's fourth studio album is somewhat of a return to form after their disastrous ball album, but by then guitarist Erik Brann had left to form another goup with other ex- IB members. He was replaced by two guitarist Mike Pinera and Larry Reinhardt, thus return the Butterfly to a quintet again. The fact of adding two guitarist will not alter their sound too much, though. If the album was well received critcally and artistically much better also, it sold quite poorly causing the IB to fold its wings. Compared to Ball, the album is much more rock-sounding (with a touch of blues) and in itself is this is vast improvement and there is a more political/rebellious anti-war sense in some of their tracks. After a small intro that is to raise our hopes for a more adventurous album, New Day and Shady Lady are still your distinctly IB numbers with some soul influences but this time sounding a bit like fellow LA band Steppenwolf. Worthy of note, four track's lyrics were written by a certain Edmondson from that particular group. And this might be the problem, actually, IB sound completely empty of inspiration at least in songwriting dept. There are still a lot of tracks with a definte Motown influences, such as the less than good Stone Believer or the poignant Soldier In Their Town. The second last track Easy Rider is again a wide call to the wolf from the steppe with its screeching guitars. Not completely absent from their earlier albums, there is a good dose of Blues influence on this album as can be heard in the lengthy 14-min finale Butterfly Bleu, which will be a likely exit for the group and the highlight of the album with its psyched-out middle section.

As I wrote above IB will break up around mid-71, but will reconvene for a further two albums in 75 and 76, but both Scorching Beauty and Sun And Steel will not make much an imact on the public for one evident reason: IB had said everything in their first two albums. I, myself only heard once or twice those albums in the 70's and they certainly left me no lasting impression. IB has again reformed in the 80's and later in the 90's. Up until now, the group still tours the club scene around the globe, much to the joy of nostalgic fans. But if IB was ever of interest to progheads, it was because of their embryonic days were they were certainly among the head of the pack of groundbreaking groups that helped Pop metamorphose into ROCK.

When you discover the opening number "Free Flight", you are probably going to think of a huge joke. Some fifty seconds full of emptiness.I really wonder how it was possible in the early seventies to have such a stupid short number open an album.

You know, in these ancient times, one went to the disc shop and usually listened to the first song and made his judgement to buy an album or not. Needless to say that with such a poor track, the temptation to drop it and find some more interesting stuff was easily recommendable.

What's available on this album, is just another heavy-soul work. Pretty much in line with their previous Motown oriented Ball. When I have to bear such a poor "Best Years Of Our Lives", I am just voiceless. These are definitely not the best musical moments of mine.

It is quite difficult to determine which is the poorest song from this offering, but let's take for granted that "Slower Than Guns" is going to be on the podium. Even if this album has been rated with the masterpiece status by one fellow reviewer, I won't be as generous.

This album doesn't hold a second of prog feeling. It is all funk and soul stuff ("Stone Believer"). OK, on the heavy side, but still.If I am willing to listen to some "Temptations" recordings (which is a very, very rare temptation of mine), I would just have an ear to "Papa. " and that's it. If you want to play some extra time, you can always borrow this album and listen to it endlessly on your CD player. But I'm not buying this.

Nothing prog, nothing interesting, nothing actually. Except the long and fine closing number!

"Butterfly Bleu" is a good song; still in the heavy blues department but with a great feeling and a superb guitar work. An obvious psychedelic obedience, a strong rhythmic section, a certain improvisation atmosphere are such a fine combination! Why the hell didn't "Iron Butterfly" built on more of these type of songs?

It is the one track which prevents me to rate this album with one star. Be prepared though to some really weird passages which are close to native Indian incantations and pretty boring. Experimental and improvised are the words.

In all, this is a very average album. Two stars.

1970 was like a dark amorphous cloud that roamed across the musical landscape seeking out rock bands singing about flowers & beads to absorb, consume and spit out the bones. Iron Butterfly saw the cloud approaching, and weren't going down without a fight. The cloud did eventually win, but the Butterfly's attempt to undergo metamorphosis was nothing to be ashamed of and in retrospect they released a pretty solid piece of work that deserved more notice, considering the band was one of the biggest selling acts in the game just two years prior.

With this effort, Iron Butterfly ditched the fuzzy guitar tones and embraced a funkier and bluesier approach to rock music, basically following the tide so to speak. There's a bit of Grand Funk, a sprinkle of Three Dog Night, some lingering tripped-out acid rock and Doug's mighty baritone telling us that shady ladies are cool. His voice has improved technically and suits the music well. The man is absolutely drenched in soul, sounding like a more earnest and less obnoxious Michael McDonald with no fear of rockin' out.

Musically the band is pretty tight, and the production values for its time sound crisp and surprisingly stellar. These dudes may not have been the big cheese anymore, but they still had a sweet budget to lay down these tracks. There's no real "hooky" tune to latch onto as a potential big single release, but what's bad for the casual rock fan can be good for the prog fan as there's some interesting things going about this disc musically. A song like "Shady Ladies" shouldn't be as complex as it is, but...there you go. In fact, I really dig this tune with its cute keyboard ditties & surprising shifts from happy grooviness to haunting space rock and back again. The opening main track "New Day" (after a silly intro) sounds like a sort of Steppenwolf number, which isn't a bad thing, but keep listening, and eventually you'll get to some 'out there' music, especially the final juggernaut "Butterfly Bleu". As a long track, it doesn't meander too far away from the rest of the album's overall arch, but man at one point things do get pretty weird with the goofy vocal chants, mumblings and interactions with a guitar voice box whining "help me!" It's silly and dated, but fun as a one-off listen.

Metamorphosis requires a few listens to get into (at least for me it did), but if you're not looking for something too proggy but with talent and some great manly vocals, this bugger may do the trick.

Whilst history shows that Iron Butterfly were an extraordinarily success in their own time, for many they will always be known as the group that produced the mammoth, twenty-five minute long heavy-psych epic 'In-A- Gadda-Da-Vida',a track that defined the album of the same name. This epoch-defining piece would prove to be both a blessing and a curse, providing Iron Butterfly with a worldwide reputation that lasts to this day, yet also overshadowing almost everything else they did, including this fourth release from 1970. Seen by many as the group's last truly decent effort, 'Metamorphosis' would fare slightly better than it's underwhelming predecessor 'Ball' simply because it wasn't the follow-up to 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida'. Whilst 'Ball' pointedly eschewed the grandstanding that had been such a feature of the group's success - shorter, simpler tracks were the order of the day - 'Metamorphosis' did at least see Iron Butterfly re-embrace their psychedelic roots, the album topped off with an impressive fourteen-minute epic entitled 'Butterfly Bleu' which provided glimmers of the group's old creative fire. An otherwise rather uneven affair, 'Metamorphosis' blends up-tempo rockers, bluesy-numbers, Beatles-esque psych-pop and occasional organ-and-guitar-laced heavy rock that almost comes across as a kind of potted sonic trawl through the previous three studio releases. Some tracks grate - 'Stone Believer' is trite and light - others impress without breaking any new ground, though an added instrumental depth which sees sitars, extra percussion and steel guitars added to the mix does enliven otherwise run-of-the-mill tracks such as the poppy 'New Day' and 'Best Years Of Our life'. Hardly inspired stuff then, but at least 'Metamorphosis' avoids the pitfalls of 'Ball', though if this album proves anything it is that this a group with a rare talent for writing long, complex numbers, the best track on this album the final, lengthy, atmospheric epic. Pity then - a real pity - that they only wrote two extended pieces during their initial burst of activity. They could have been so much better.

STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2012