DULL KNIFE

Electric Indian - Dull Knife 1971 Rating ? / 20 Dull Knife are one of many early 70's krautrock bands. A lot of these extreme rock bands came out of Germany. I find that the sound of krautrock bands is often hard-rock with a lot of organ and a lot of Gospel influence on some songs. Sought of like Psychedelia wiht Hard Rock and Gospel. Yeah, that's it. And probably other sutff too! Oops, sorry for confusing you. But Hard rock, Psychedelia and Hard (and I mean HARD) rock are the main components. Although I could say it's definitely true of Dull Knife, it is also true of a lot of other krautrock and other progressive genre bands of that time, i.e. they all sound the same.

Dull Knife (yeah, that's the name of the band) don't mind bashing away on the drums, the electric guitars shredding away as hard as possible, the vocalist screaming through a voice distortion box. The opening ''Plastic People'' is quite bad... can't understand the words at all as the lead singer screams away through a distortion box, inaudible, somewhere in the background. There is some aggressive instrumental music, but doesn't really save it. But none of the other songs are that bad.

The highlight is the excellent ''Tumberlin' Down''. This sought of riff driven rocker is when they are at their best, with the lead singer blustering about 'GIIIRRRRLLL You Done Me Wrong' and the riffs really rock. Plus it is catchy, sticks in your head...

This is hard-rock / metal for people with good music taste! Can't have a metal band with doing an organ solo in the middle of the song these days... or maybe it's because this band is from Germany... Europeans generally have better taste ;-)

''Feeling like a queen'' is a rocker in the vein of ''Tumberlin' Down'', not quite as good, the vocal delivery is sloppy but there are good riffs... There are a few heartfelt gospel tunes, and the lead singer does have a very soulful voice, albeit, sometimes a bit sloppy. The closing track, Day of Wrath is a propetic way to finish things.

Krautrock is an interesting genre that was around in the early 70's, didn't last that long. It is often marked by aggressive riffs, passionate, gospel-influenced vocals and lots of organ. A lot of the Krautrock bands I have heard sound similar. This is a pretty good one. It's eith 2.5 or 3, I'll tentatively give it 3 stars.