CAPTAIN BEYOND

What's so special about this record? If you read the previous reviews, you're thinking that this is a masterpiece, a fantastic blend of progressive and hard rock, with interesting lyrics, creative arrangements, fine melodies and great musicianship. But unfortunately this is not the case with Captain Beyond, although there are two great musicians involved: Bobby Caldwell (a great drummer, as his works with Armageddon and Johnny Winter proves) and Lee Dorman (a fine bassist, previously with Iron Butterfly); but Rhino is a sub-standard hard rock guitar player: his riffs are below the average and his soloing is sparse and uninspired; and Rod Evans is a weak singer, period. Most of the songs featured here segues one into another, creating mini-suites, full of tempo changes ("Dancing Madly Backwards/Armworth/Myopic Void" is, to my taste, the most interesting). But the songwriting (all by Caldwell/Evans) is uninspired and some songs are derivative (listen to the last bars of "Frozen Over": Grand Funk's "Into the Sun" resurfaces here); also, album's package is poor and unattractive. I never listened to their other two albums, but since this is considered their best, IMHO you're not losing anything if you do not buy "Captain Beyond", unless you are a prog-metal fan interested in tracing roots to this genre.