Review Summary: Iron Butterfly showed the way
Undeniably a trademark album in the history of rock music. It's not the best album of the band but surely their most important one. Simplicity and originality are the main characteristics since songs have a short duration. From a first hearing, someone can understand that it was something new at that point in time. The album is characterised as 'psychedelic' rock and it's influenced by the music and the psychedelic spirit of the era. It was the first time that something in the music industry was called 'heavy'.
Despite being the main composer, Doug Ingle was also the keyboardist and vocalist of the band and from this album and on the music identity of Iron Butterfly is starting to take shape. I will not hide from you that when I first heard ''Possession'' I understood that a melodic album would follow. Next song, ''Unconscious Power'' has a faster tempo and is based on a combination of the guitar's riff and the keyboards. ''Get out of my life, woman'', ''Gentle as it may seem'' and ''Look for the sun'' have a more groovy rhythm and leave their trademarks with their own solos. One of the songs that I can somehow pick out from those that Ingle is not on the vocals is ''So-Lo''. ''Stamped Ideas'' is the song that its completely different from the others and slips from the overall picture of the album since it is somehow cheerful. However, it cannot be criticized as a bad addition to the album since we can find beautiful guitar and keyboard solos again. In my opinion ''Fields of Sun'' is one of the strong points in the disc since it combines lovely lyrics and a melody that will lead to the climax somewhere in the middle of the song where the high vocals are waiting to give a nice ending. Lastly, the band will close the album with the instrumental anthem ''Iron Butterfly Theme''. I have found the concept of the song a very brilliant idea, since it tries to portray the life cycle of a butterfly.
Generally, there are not lengthy solos or jamming that would 'exhaust' the listener. In addition, there is not any acoustic song on the album that will make you question the band's identity. In my opinion, the instrument that distinguishes on the album is the keyboards since they bind excellently Ingle's voice, who starts to shape Iron Butterfly's sound.
