THE ULTIMATE ANTHOLOGY

In 1970 ex-Andromeda guitarist and vocalist John DuCann joined Atomic Rooster and he immediately went on tour with the band. When bass player Graham left the band, keyboardist Crane refused to replace him and started playing bass lines on the lower part of the Hammond organ. To compensate the fact that he couldn't use his left hand to press down chords on the lower manual he created a 'burning' style of playing, often in furious interplay with DuCann. When Carl Palmer left Atomic Rooster to join Keith Emerson and Greg Lake left for supergroup ELP, Rick Parnell shortly replaced him. John and Vincent were not satisfied about his skills and replaced him by Paul Hammond, an extremely good drummer from a local band called Farm. Soon the trio started to develop their influential 'heavy progressive' sound: hard edged progressive music with a swirling Hammond B3 organ and fiery guitarplay. The interplay between John's guitar and Vince organ is hot and often furious. In fact this powerful sound was the precursor to 'progressive metal', many metal- acts from The Eighties pointed at Atomic Rooster as their main source.

This DVD is a reissue of the Master Of The Vaults DVD (five tracks with Chris Farlowe as singer during a Belgian TV concert in 1972) with the addition of three previously unreleased tracks. About the Belgian TV concert: I am not a fan of singer Chris Farlowe because of his a bit theatrical undertone and scream outbursts so my pleasure is a bit spoiled in the five tracks. My highlights are the shots on Vincent Crane his exciting Hammond organ work in Breakthrough and the compelling climate in Can't Find A Reason with dynamic interplay, Atomic Rooster at their best during that concert! Two of the three bonustracks are German TV clips, recorded between 1970 and 1972. The line-up is different from the Belgian TV concert, here Atomic Rooster is a trio that sounds superior to the other line up: the interplay between Vincent Crane and guitarist/singer John Du Cann is electrifying, John his a bit raw vocals are strong and drummer Paul Hammond plays very propulsive, this band is a powerhouse. The first 'German TV' song is the hit single Tomorrow with great rock guitar work and halfway we can enjoy a swirling Hammond organ solo by master Vincent Crane. The other track is Save Me that delivers exciting Hammond organ work and dynamic interplay between guitar, drums and organ, this is great Heavy Prog! Finally the third track, this is entitled Breakthrough Reprise (from the Belgian TV concert), the focus is on the instrumental work with again swirling Hammond work by Vincent Crane.

I am glad that record company Ragnarok has upgraded the original 30 minutes to 42 minutes by adding three strong tracks, especially the German TV clips are awesome and showcase Atomic Rooster at their peak, what a chemistry! My rating: 3,5 stars.