CAPTAIN BEYOND

Riff oriented, up-tempo, slightly murky and gritty hard 'n' heavy music like this with infectious grooves and a bluesy backbone isn't hard to find or imagine. And that's always a bit of a let down when listening to Captain Beyond's debut. You've heard things like this before. In itself that's not a bad thing, but Captain Beyond never really breaks free from the mould enough to make this a memorable disc.

Sure, the power, directness and instrumental aggression here stand out and feel like refreshing kicks in the butt in comparison to similar acts of the time. Bursting with energy, the band revels in punchy, bouncy riff fests and quick, short shifts in direction in melody or rhythm. With a decently engaging rhythm section and the visceral muscle to back it all up, the menacing rumble almost reaches the level of Black Sabbath now and then. Overall, it's a brighter, friskier and livelier journey. The music never stands still, with little room for breathers among the thirteen tracks. But yes, there's still that tendency to revert back to type in bar room brawl-ish, bluesy, hard rock clichés now and then. Disappointing. The best bits tend to be fast and direct barrages of nastier unpredictable riffs or slightly jazzy, busy sections dominated by repetitive and fiery guitar motifs and an enticingly spontaneous rhythmic framework. And while youthful, sprightly hard rock energy dominates, there are a few nice, but not spectacular, acoustic moments around and even touches of psychedelia and space rock to liven up the proceedings. However, most of the the bits that divert from the disciplined and tight rock onslaught are never really expanded or developed upon, serving as ornament rather than truly integrated bits. There is a slight haziness and will to build from repetition that I rather like. A spacier, more textured and dynamic side of the band that never really is brought to the front. In general it is killed off by the restless nature and relentless drive forwards before anything nuanced, layered or dynamic is allowed to take place.

You may love this album for its compact, energetic vitality, but my enjoyment is mired by it. Focus, drive and compact energy might leave you breathless for a while, but after a while Captain Beyond feels rather flat and limited by it. Things just flutter by in quick succession, eagerly hoping you'll enjoy the presentation more than the content.

Initially dazzling, occasionally a blast, regularly a bit of a disappointment.

2 stars.

//LinusW

Captain Beyond's first album does not disappoint. It starts off a rock album with no gimmicks or tricks. Rhino's innovative guitar playing is backed by a heavy rhythm section provided by Dorman's bass and the splintering drums of Bobby Caldwell (Who? Well, you know him now!). The man has a full arsenal of drumming skill and he doesn't hold back. Rod Evans was never much of a hard rock vocalist but he gives it a good effort, sometimes surprisingly on the edge, once or twice a little over the edge of his abilities. By the time the album reaches tracks four and five - "Mesmerization Eclipse" and "Raging River of Fear" respectively - you are starting to wonder if these guys plan to just rock away the whole album. In fact, there are only a couple of acoustic parts and no real ballads. Any track that starts slow doesn't stay that way for much more than a minute. Then it's back to the hard rock and roll machinegun attack. The final track "I Can't Feel Nothin' (Part II)" closes the album with a brief but rock out tune that should encourage fist pumping and head banging.

Like Iron Butterfly's "Metamorphosis", Captain Beyond's first album features ever changing guitar riffs, chord progressions, and time signatures. As my old guitar teacher said about Butterfly, "It's as if they are trying to put as many notes in the song as possible." The album has two song clusters, groups of related tracks with parts and intros. Sometimes it is hard to tell when one track has ended and the next has begun. The lyrics of "Myopic Void" close with the title for "Dancing Madly Backwards (On a Sea of Air)". On the other hand, the 15- second instrumental "Astral Lady" is nothing more than a guitar solo joining "As the Moon Speaks (To the Waves of the Sea)" and "As the Moon Speaks (Return)". You might wonder why the guitar break was only 15 seconds. What was the point of giving it a name? Maybe it was a psychedelic thing.

The guitar sound never gets really heavy with distortion. A suitable comparison would be Oasis's "F**king in the Bushes". Nevertheless, the album rocks and Captain Beyond proves to have no shortage of ideas for the guitar. By the time the album has played through you'll be wondering what hit you.

As a heavy prog album it fits the bill nicely. I actually suspected this album would be on this site and did a search. I am glad to see others recognized it for what it is. Highly recommended to heavy prog and 70's hard rock fans.

The riffs are always prevalent and driving headlong to new half time feels and awesome instrumental breaks with the mind bending guitars of Rhino, from Iron Butterfly. His slide guitar work is absolutely psychedelic and atmospheric. Bobby Caldwell was a brilliant drummer and has a field day on percussion injecting timpani triplets and odd beats throughout. The bass of Lee Dorman is a constant pulse. 'Mesmerization Eclipse' is the first break into a different feel after the non stop opening suite of songs. There is another heavy riff and Deep Purple style vocals. They are much more progressive though, and once again the song reaks into several signatures, the band are brimming over with creativity and one never knows where they will go next, fast to slow to downright out of place, each meter is a pattern that locks on with that ever present heavy guitar. I didn't like the way this faded out slowly but immediately the next riff settles in on 'Raging River Of Fear'. This has a heavy bluesy feel, aggressive vocals and accomplished rhythm changes. The drums on this are incredible, constantly providing new tempos and fast paced beats and fills.

'Thousand Days Of Yesterday (Intro)' settles down the fury with quiet acoustic picking and gentle vocals. The harmonies are nice and the overall feel is melancholy to break away from the heaviness before and after. It doesn't last long as the next moment guitars crunch in and a fast tempo with forced vocals on 'Frozen Over'. The half time feel on this is astonishing injecting new metrics and it then changes completely in the next section. Nobody changes time sigs like Captain Beyond; so rapid and always appropriate. It fades into an accelerated acoustic rhythm on 'Thousand Days Of Yesterdays (Time Since Come & Gone)'.

A fantastic rhythm locks in and Rhino is dynamic in the lead break. It fades and hammering chords intro 'I Cant Feel Nothin (Part 1)'. The drums are dazzling along with another massive riff. The vocals are easy on the ears and close to the Bachman Turner Overdrive style. The music continues non stop with a suite of songs; 'As The Moon Speaks (To the Waves of the Sea)' a quiet acoustic piece of beauty with narrative vocals, 'Astral Lady', 'As The Moon Speaks (Return)' back to the pounding rock of 'I Cant Feel Nothin (Part 2)'.

What a fantastic heavy slice of prog with an obscurity that should be unearthed and played often. A great find for any heavy prog fan and one to return to habitually.

Let me start by saying that the Heavy Prog genre isn't among my top sub-categories of the progressive rock movement but there have been quite a few nice surprises along the way. The closest stylistic comparison that I can think of in order to describe this album is that of a mixture of Atomic Rooster and Quatermass. But what I'm ultimately saying is that Captain Beyond sounds pretty much like they should for a band active in the early '70s. There isn't much that differentiates their music from those two other bands, meaning that they don't bring anything completely new or original to the table with this material. Still, if you're into this type of material then you're bound to find a hidden gem in this release.

The album's material is split into many interconnected compositions and songs divided into smaller portions which definitely appeals to my progressively-inclined mind although I really don't see much point to it in this particular case. In retrospect, it would definitely have made more sense to keep the compositions as complete pieces since I personally tend to lose the connection between them.

Overall it's a nice little piece of Heavy Prog from the early days of the style's existence. The music is far less trippy than that of Iron Butterfly but, at the same time, has little connection to the symphonic escapades that were explored by the early Deep Purple lineup. It's a very pleasant, but ultimately non-essential release that will appeal to its audience and fans of the early '70s rock music.

***** star songs: Armworth (1:49) Frozen Over (3:46)

**** star songs: Dancing Madly Backwards (On A Sea Of Air) (4:02) Myopic Void (3:31) Raging River Of Fear (3:51) Thousand Days Of Yesterday (Intro) (1:19) Thousand Days Of Yesterday (Time Since Come And Gone) (3:57) As The Moon Sparks (To The Waves Of The Sea) (2:26) Astral Lady (0:16) As The Moon Sparks (Return) (2:14) I Can't Feel Nothing (Part 2) (1:14)

*** star songs: Mesmerization Eclipse (3:49) I Can't Feel Nothing (Part 1) (3:07)

"Dancing Madly Backwards" has some killer stuff. It doesn't let up one bit. "Armworth" is another great tune, but the slide guitar section repeats far too much for me. Then we have the wonderful reprise called "Myopic Void" which ends with a restatement of "Dancing Madly Backwards."

"Mesmerization Eclipse" Keeps slaying the listener with more wonderful changes and it stays hard and heavy.

"Raging River of Fear" again does you in. Where did they get these musical ideas? It makes you wish you could think like Rhino.

I think maybe the only real drawback to this album are some of the lyrics. The song "As the moon Sparks," sounds kind of amaturish. It reminds me of some of the stuff Rod Evans sang for "Deep Purple." Other than that this is a killer release! I highly recommend it. Also, it has no keyboards. I like the guitar focus here. Since they limited themselves to one guitar, Rhino made full use of his creativity. Like I said in my review of the band "Flash," I was hoping prog bands would go in this direction. Just using guitar, bass, and drums, and forcing themselves to think of more musical ideas. It works tremendously well here with Captain Beyond.

I give this one 4 solid stars.

The band can play, the execution is spot on, the transitions are perfect, the music has depth and the riffs just strike your inner rock-n-roll nerve that makes you want to fist pump to ad infinitum. You'll have to do it in some tricky metre as it seems like every other time signature the band plays in is some odd number for most people. This is all under Rod Evans's smooth vocal execution which augments the band quite nicely, even if I'm not currently familiar with his tenure in Deep Purple.

Long songs and virtuoso passages aren't here, so don't expect too much pompousness. Also, keyboards are rare to nonexistant, so it's more of a hard rock album than a prog rock album in those respects. I like these types of prog albums as proggers aren't sure whether to accept CAPTAIN BEYOND for it's depth or ignore it because it's too much of a rocker than a progger, and my curiosity feeds off the endless debating.

Songs like ''Dancing Madly Backwards'', ''Mesmerization Eclipse'', ''Raging River of Fear'', ''Frozen Over'' and the ''I Can't Feel Nothin'' parts are perfect outputs of what Captain Beyond are all about, at least on this album. Who says a little rock is bad for your prog health?