GROBSCHNITT

Right from the first Teutonic Wagner-like singing until the end of the album (excluding the Live bonus track), you know you will be in for quite a ride. These guys were extra crazy/special and developed in the late 70's a extensive live show that is one of my great regrets never to have seen.

As we open up the album with Symphony, one is confronted by a relatively subdued zaniness, having a fun time keeping track of all the musical events succeeding rapidly. If you can picture vocals sounding like Chris Farlowe (yes, almost that good!) with a Santana -sounding guitar on top of superb organs and a very dynamic rhythm section (Eroc, the drummer is the leader of this group and the second drummer Harlos will leave after this album), you can see how much fun this album can be. This double drummer thing coupled with that guitar sound can remind you also of the absolute masterpiece Caravanserai of Santana but nothing to disturb you. Travelling is also quite fine but the well-named first track of side 2 is totally overshadowed by the others. Side 2 is an almost-side-long suite with many great events throughout its almost 18 mins. This of course is another highlight.

The Repertoire reissue contains a 29 min+ bonus track that represents a first try at their future Solar Music. A great bonus!!! There is this great side of Grobschnitt showing their improvisation skills this sounding once more very Santana but the middle section is relatively less interesting due to different solos and actually a drum DUET (some five years before Collins/Bruford). Grobschnitt is definitely a more of a live band as we will see in Solar Music Live.

By the time they got this album released, Grobschnitt was not yet the popular machine it became by Rockpommel's Land but man is this a great start , foreseeing the future.

You might want to forget the review posted just after mine. Just one thing, Prog-zilla: Nektar was an English band but living in Germany, because that was where they had most success! And the rest of his review is really un-clever almost slandering from someone jumping to conclusion after too few listening of this album.

Highly recommended!!!!!