ATOMIC ROOOSTER

Atomic Rooster. First album is known for one thing: Carl Palmer being on it. But, really what do we know about the music? Why did it never got off the earth? First, this is not really a prog album, but mostly a hard rock one. A hard rock album with a killer drummer... what went wrong? Mostly, nothing. Hard rock lovers were just waiting fot the big solos à la Led Zeppelin! This is a hammond-led album!

From a musical point of view, this album does a great job of mixing jazzy improvisations with the psychedelia taken from the ashes of Crazyy World of Arthur Brown, and a hard rock attack. There are also glimpses of folk on Winter, and a bluesy side to BrokenWings.

Still it has its flaws, as mostly any first album is supposed to have. It shows where the band would go, and if Palmer and lead singer Nick Graham had stayed in the band, what were the possibilities. Vincent Crane is no Keith Emerson, much more like a Jon Lord(Deep Purple) in the Machine Head days, but with more drive to his sound. Quality-wise, there are mostly no filler, but no track stands out either.

All in all, a good first album from the roost.