GOMORRHA

Rough and tumble stuff from these Germans, a recording that could only have occurred in '72 with its bargain-basement heavy psych, rumbling brown guff, deeply stoned performances and "you had to be there" trance-jams. One of those sets that must've seemed transcendent at 3 am but wholly questionable in the light of day, I Turned to See Whose Voice it Was is a progressive mess. That said, it does have a modicum of rock 'n roll street cred with Peter Otten doing a poor man's David Clayton-Thomas and a decent, honest heavy organ base, ten-minute 'Dance on a Volcano' faltering but hitting the spot in a guilty pleasure sort of way. It must be said even this grimy mix required a good bit of prep and practice to pull off and, for a very brief moment, surely fit right in with the exploratory nature of jam-rock. But 'Opening of the Sealed Book' doesn't up the stakes and goes on for...ev...er. Eberhard Krietsch provides a pleasant ground with a wet & warm Hammond as the backbone, Claudi & Ochel having a good time on their steelstrings as on the title cut. Though 'I Try to Change the World' is so overdriven and grainy that it makes its 9 1/2 minute run ridiculous.

If producer Conny Plank had had a greater vision for the six-piece, the LP might've shone brighter. As it is, the amount of hash you'd have to smoke to even begin to enjoy this swamp of an exercise would probably induce a brain hemorrhage.

I adore the organ. That I do. It is one unbelievably versatile instrument capable of anything from tender caresses to thundering disintegration of your bones. Wonderful! So, being a follower of the Church of Organ I dived headlong into this album. It has taken me some years getting my head 'round it. How good is it really? Am I seduced by the organ or is there more to it than that?

Released back in 1972 it harks back to the glorious days of majestic organ and I am not at all disappointed in the massive amount of that particular instrument. It is there in abundance. On top of that the sound of the organ is very impressive, heavy and all conquering. The ground on which the music is built is one of heavy rock. This is really heavy music, for the most part. It is the missing link between Deep Purple and Uriah Heep, with a healthy dose of Black Sabbath as icing on the cake.

At times I think it is dumb-heavy. It is almost heavy to the brink of being dumb. I don't know. I haven't really made my mind up as yet. Anyway, heavy. That is the keyword and all sort of basic in approach. The music really is a mixture of hard rock and traces of blues rock can be heard, as on "Opening of the sealed book". Gravy Train-ish, in a way. That don't mean there isn't enough progressive leanings to please me or anyone else into prog. The oopening track, "Dance on a volcano", is to me the best track and that one really is the finest example of this band's approach. You have the omnipotent organ smashing it's way through the speakers while the distorted guitar wreaks havoc on the listener. It is heavy but groovy. Built in sections the song goes into a solo piece on spanish guitar, just prior to a piece of gentle and very pleasing organ over soft drums. This gentle passage is soon dealt with and the opening heavyness takes over again. This is a very good track. Progressive, heavy and varied. It also displays the closeness between hard rock and progressive, as displayed by other bands in that genre. Both Deep Purple and Black Sabbath grew more progressive as times went by. (The latter even more so.)

Most of the other tracks are good stuff but fails to reach the heights of the opening track. "Dead life" is an ominous piece which yet again brings back the Gravy Train-ish influences, also going into some jazzy latin part. It is quite a good one. The title track is a bit more mellow, heavy on percussion. It suits the overall sound and offers some release, being a bit slower and gentle in nature. "I try to change the world" is very jamming but is a good one aswell. The ending "Titish child" has similarities to the opening one.

As a whole this is a good album but not really excellent and certainly not essential. It is a nice slab of heavy prog and I enjoy listening to it, though it's mostly down to the organ. I suppose that my search for depth is over. There is prog to be found in Gomorrah's second album and there is vision but it is not enough to give me the goose bumps I am looking for. I feel at times it drones on. Like a hesitant guide in a landscape he or she is not entirely familiar with, Gomorrah stumbles around in the faint hope of reaching the final destination. Certainly good but definately not an excellent addition to any and all prog collections.

Gomorrah is a heavy psych prog german band, consisting of no less than six musicians although i must say their sound is not so diverse, i heard 4 piece bands that were much more diverse sounding than them, but that's not saying anything about their music. This, their second album and also their last, released in 1972 only a year after their debut is a big improvement in every way, in song writing, production and playing. Out goes the 60's influences of their previous work, the music now is a mix of hard rock, blues and heavy progressive. The writing is not so complex although the playing is very good and you know you are facing a very capable band. The band emphasis is on the excellent guitar and the heavy rhythm created by the rhythm section. There are some very good ideas carried out like they should and some mediocare ideas where the band chose to go to a controversial direction. They also include some improvisation into their music and there is a slight feel in about half the songs that the band is jamming, more than following something written. The songs are never bad but they are also not that great, they fail to reach any great heights, that would really raise the album from mediocrity. Keys are also incorporated but they are not evident at all and doesn't add anything special to the music, although it really could use that help. Vocals are the weakest link of the chain, singer Peter Otten doesn't have a great voice and neither can he really sing, his vocals ranges from ok to not good. Although in some cases I feel like a band can do better than what they did, in this case I feel Gomorrah pretty much gave us everything they could. It seems the band is not interested or should i say couldn't write complex prog songs, but settled on writing a few ideas and giving them extended versions while improvising on them.

Highlights in the album if i must say is maybe the closing track 'Titish Child' featuring excellent guitars on top of a good rhythm and some very good drums too. 'Opening Of The Sealed Book' is another goodie featuring a cool guitar riff, but i think with a little more work they could make it a real killer song. Other songs, all contain very good moments but the overall song, as a whole suffers from mediocare vocals, boring improvisation and mediocare material. Overall it's a good addition to your collection but hardly essential, that would maybe appeal more to guitar freaks that can't get enough of that 70's guitars, like me!

Gomorrha's debut album released in 1971, after they were completely dissatisfied with the recording of what was supposed to be their debut album. Instead they shaped up the songs and rerecorded them, instead of the german lyrics which apparently did not work, they released the album with english vocals. The album consists of 8 short songs and one 13 minute song, 'Trauma', this song is so out of place, it doesn't have the slightest resemblance to the rest of the album, while the majority of the album is in the vein of typical 60's beat psych songs, trauma is a prog beast which sees the band set their eyes towards something more ambitious than the rest of the material.

The music is mainly some hard edged 60's rocky tunes with a slight psych atmosphere around it, really arriving a few years late to this scene, and not presenting us with anything new, since this all sounds like a 1967/8 recording, not sure why the band recorded those songs since this kind of music was clearly gone by that time, and had evolved to a much more mature approach. The band's sound is lying heavily on guitars which include a few moments of fiery solos and other hard edged guitar sounds, but this is hardly enough to satisfy this progressive listener. What saves this album from being a total embarrassment is of course the album's title song, Trauma, clocking at 13 minutes, this piece is far from being a prog masterpiece but it still quite nice to listen to, it is actually a big jam, the music is psychedelic, and after a nice intro the singer is going aside and guitars starts to solo which leads them to the next part, feedback and distortion noises, keys are also added which is nice, they solo a bit and end this song, overall very good. If the album would continue in this vein, this could have been one of the coolest jams out there.

Nothing to be excited by, but it is nice to have if you are a completionist or a collector, better going to their next album, which showed a much more elaborated writing and playing. The CD version contains the german sung version as well, which is even worse than the english version, recording quality is rough and the arrangements are not good. Trauma is saving this album from being a 1 star. Avoid.

After the disappointment of their debut I wasn't expecting much here, but they surprised me big time.There are a few reasons for the improvement. On the debut these guys could only afford to use the studio from midnight to 3am, which they did over a two week period. No producer was helping them either, so they were on their own and it showed. In fact the band quickly disassociated themselves from the debut because they just weren't happy with the results. By the way there was the original German version of the debut then an English version ("Trauma") recorded the following year. On this album they were helped by legendary producer Conny Plank who was a major help, but also Brain Records saw the potential in this band and signed them to their label.This was important as well because they gave them complete artistic freedom and the studio time to create the album they wanted.

"Dance On A Volcano" rocks out pretty good early on and vocals join in at 1 1/2 minutes. Aggressive guitar a minute later. A calm 3 minutes in. Organ 4 1/2 minutes in as it stays laid back. It's building 6 1/2 minutes in then the tempo picks up as the vocals return. Some nice bass late. "Opening Of The Sealed Book" opens with guitar, tapping and vocals only.The guitar eventually takes over making some noise.Vocals are back after 2 minutes then the tempo picks up again as drums and guitar take over. "Dead Life" picks up when the vocals stop.The keyboards before 3 minutes sound great then the vocals return.

"I Turned To See Whose Voice It Was" is a quote from the book of Revelation and they are the words of John. Strummed guitar as reserved vocals join in.This is fairly uptempo too. Percussion takes over 2 minutes in then the guitar joins in as they jam. "I Try To Change This World" opens with relaxed drums and guitar. It's heavier 2 minutes in when the vocals arrive.When the vocals stop the guitar lights it up. Nice. It settles back before 7 minutes. So good. It's dark as the vocals return in a reserved manner. "Titish Child" is uptempo with drums and guitar leading.Vocals after 1 1/2 minutes.The keyboards before 2 1/2 minutes are great.The guitar sounds amazing too after 4 minutes.Vocals are back late.

This will be joining my favourite Krautrock discs. An impressive album.

The highlight of this album is the cover art that opens up revealing a woman smoking a joint that has the faces the the band members on it. It looks pretty cool.This album is rated fairly highly on another site and I just don't get it at all. GOMORRAH were a German band from the late sixties and early seventies.This isn't Krautrock and it really lacks dynamics and ideas.To be honest it's really a poor album as Hdfisch has already noted in his review.

"Journey" has this beat with repetitive guitar melodies as reserved vocals join in.This is late sixties sounding. "Trauma" is the best track by far clocking in at over 13 minutes it at least has that Krautrock spirit. It's uninspired at first but then the guitar starts to improvise and turns more aggressive 4 1/2 minutes in. Organ to the fore after 9 1/2 minutes. "Yesterday" builds as drums, guitar then organ joins in.Vocals around a minute. "Lola" opens with drums as some fuzzy guitar leads then organ arrives and leads.The guitar is back.Vocals after 1 1/2 minutes as it settles back.

"Dead Land" is simply not very good at all. "Summer" is better with the guitar, bass and drums standing out. Organ follows then vocals. "Rainbowlight" is really the only other track other than "Trauma" that I like. "Dance Of Circles" has some flute late but it's another bad tune. "Firehands" is energetic early on but it goes downhill when the vocals join in.

2 stars it is. Fans or collectors only.

The band Gomorrha based in Cologne in 1969 has been influenced initially strongly by 60's beat music and the original version of this album here (which is added up as bonus on the CD re-release) is kept basically in this style using German lyrics. Since especially their vocals in native language wasn't that much appreciated on concerts the band decided to discard the complete recordings and to do new ones with singing in English adding a much stronger psyche and bluesey touch to the songs. Those are mainly dominated by guitar and especially on the title track which is the longest and certainly most interesting one plenty of solos can be found. Keyboards have been used rather sparsely but then highly efficient and in a freaky and psychedelic vein. Not everything on this work here can be considered as Prog since the rest of the songs are more or less blues-tinged psyche rock. Although being not really that much impressing (at least to me) this album is nonetheless a quite decent debut and an interesting collector's item for all fans of early Krautrock.

Gomorrha was a german heavy psych band who released two albums in the early seventies (actually three since the debut was recorded with german lyrics and then re- recorded with english lyrics). Was the debut mainly sixties blues mixed with psychedelics, the second album was more adventurous. Not only were the tracks much longer, but they also had a more progressive nature. Maybe the music on this album is best described as Black Sabbath with organs.

The album opens with the long "Dance on a vulcano", which starts very heavy but has a very quiet part in the middle with acoustic guitars and a pastoral organ sound. Singer Peter Otten sounds like your average hardrock vocalist, bluesy when it is good, shouting when it is not so good. Good opener though. Another good track is "I try to change this world". It has a great psychedlic, jammy part with solos for both organ and guitar. I also like "Titish child", a bluesy track that jumps around.

This is a good album for everyone who likes some good early psychedelic, hardrock with progressive tendencies.