ATOMIC ROOOSTER

This debut album by Atomic Rooster is something special. Coming out of the ashes of The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, Vincent Crane took drummer extraordinaire Carl Palmer with him to form Atomic Rooster. The sound of Atomic Rooster is heavy, progressive, bluesy and also soulful. They can perhaps be vaguely compared to Deep Purple, ELP, Beggar's Opera and a handful of other heavy, keyboard driven bands of the very early 70's.

Vincent Crane was something of a genius and, like many geniuses he was also a bit crazy! His lyrics are obsessed with death, like in the beautiful Winter which contains the lyric "what is the point of going on and on and on...?" There is some lovely Ian Anderson like flute in this song.

As I have already said, the sound of Atomic Rooster is heavily keyboard driven. The keyboards are mainly Hammond and piano. The other main instruments are bass, drums and very little guitar. The drum solo in Decline And Fall is so obviously Carl Palmer - he already had his distinctive style at this point. However, I'm not too fond of drum solos on studio albums. But it is short enough not to distract too much.

The material is strong and the lyrics are thoughtful and existential even if more than a bit bleak. My personal opinion is that this debut album is, together with Death Walks Behind You, Atomic Rooster's best album.

Very underrated and essential for anyone interested in the history of (Heavy) Prog

Share this ATOMIC ROOSTER review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to SouthSideoftheSky
• Report this review (#225890)
• Buy ATOMIC ROOSTER music online with PA partners
• Show all ATOMIC ROOSTER MP3/Stream
• Go to ATOMIC ROOSTER page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Atomic Roooster page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for ATOMIC ROOSTER related discussions