BALL

Sure there is no In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, but there is a whole album better than that! and Ball IS that album! The songs are shorter but so much better in almost every way when compared to the previous album. Not to mention that the lyrics are superb.

All the songs from this album are more melodic and more psychedelic than the Vida album.

The opening track In the Time of Our Lives is a wonderful song and the opener of any Iron Butterfly album. This song is dark and sorrowful and was way ahead of its time.

Soul Experience is a beautiful track, one of Iron Butterfly's most melodic psychedelic song.

Lonely Boy is the only weak track off this album, although I am quite fond of it, but it is mostly a soulful song with a great psychedelic atmosphere and great guitar solo by Erik Braunn.

Real Fright is one of Iron Butterfly's more faster paced and darker songs. The title is pretty self-explanatory, the song is about being so deathly afraid to the point of going completely insane.

In the Crowds is the most pop oriented song off this album, but no more than the first half of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (such as Flowers & Beads, Most Anything You Want, etc...)

It Must Be Love is just simply one of their best.

Filled with Fear - Now onto Iron Butterfly's darkest and most powerful song. It pretty much continues where Real Fright left off, lyrically wise that is. It is about a person who is losing their mind to fear and knows it, but can't stop it. The only thing they can do is sit there and watch as their mind withers away.

Belda Beast is, in my opinion, Iron Butterfly's best song they ever recorded. It is completely drenched in acid and wrung out with the most melodic psychedelia the band ever attempted. It is sung by Erik Braunn with the most beautiful guitaring he's ever done. This is simply their most proto-progressive song.

5 Stars

-AP