Review Summary: A wild, blues, psych infused predecessor of stoner rock.
Back in the early ‘70s and long before Kyuss, Monster Magnet and Spiritual Beggars developed stoner rock as we now know it, there were bands that played a certain brand of music that was the product of the amalgamation of influences from the forefathers of heavy metal. This brand of music is now called proto metal and boasts a number of brilliant albums one of which is
Growers of Mushroom. However,
Growers of Mushroom is not just a proto metal album but proto stoner, a predecessor of stoner rock.
All the characteristics of the subgenre are present on here; highly distorted guitars, mid tempo song structures, raw production and audible bass. Leaf Hound are wilder than Black Sabbath, heavier than Led Zeppelin and more psychedelic than Deep Purple MK II. The band’s music is riff driven and benefits from a solid albeit basic rhythm section. If the vocalist reminds you of someone, it’s because you’ve probably have stumbled upon him on Atomic Rooster’s
In Hearing of Atomic Rooster. Peter French, with his soulful delivery is easily one of the highlights of the album. His technique will remind to some of you that of Robert Plant even though he’s not that good but bear in mind that French was one of the candidates for Deep Purple after Gillan quit the band so he has to be talented.
Moreover, the influences from Led Zeppelin are quite obvious especially in tracks such as “Drowned My Life in Fear”, “Stray” and “Stagnant pool”. Actually, “Stray” features some sweet drum fills that would make Bill Ward happy. In addition, the epic “Work My Body” with its jazzy mood sounds like something Alice Cooper could have recorded in the early ‘70s even though it sounds a little disjointed at some point. The band’s music, besides its aggression, benefits from a strong blues influence reminiscent of early Free and Cream. In fact, Leaf Hound are an evolution of Black Cat Bones who played a psychedelic brand of blues very similar to Cream. The acoustics “Sad Road to the Sea” and “With a Minute to Go” will appeal to fans of The Who while the drug infused “Growers of Mushroom” – which is similar to some psych outbreaks of Cream – is probably the album’s low point even though it’s by no means an awful track.
To make a long story short, if you’re a fan of all or some of the aforementioned bands you’ll probably enjoy this LP. Over the years Leaf Hound’s debut has become somewhat of a holy grail for collectors of vinyl and was recently sold at a price of almost £4,000 on eBay. There are literally hundreds of obscure bands from the early ‘70s that have produced albums of quality and
Growers of Mushroom is certainly one of them.
