Review Summary: One of the first heavy metal albums that is still heavy today. Grossly unproduced, noisy, and loud.
Oh heavy metal. A lot of people will claim songs like "Helter Skelter" and "Communication Breakdown" are the first heavy metal songs ever, but in my opinion, they are wrong. For two reasons actually. One, this album came out before any of those songs or albums. And two, this is a lot heavier. Even if you listen today, you will still think this is a heavy album. It contained heavy metal, stoner rock, acid rock, hard rock, and psychedelic rock, all of the heaviest genres of the time. It contains only six songs, which mostly consist of stoned jamming and yelled vocals. Onto the content.
One of the first things you will notice is how grossly unproduced this album is. This is of course one of the traits of stoner rock, but back then they might have just had crappy technology to work with. Summertime Blues, by Eddie Cochran, opens the album which is arguably their most popular song. It has some great guitar work, drumming, and bass playing. Definitely not their best song, but a powerful opener. Next is Rock Me Baby, by B.B King. The first thing I noticed on this song was how muddy everything is, especially the drums. But this song (and album) are kind of built on the atmosphere that provides. Rock Me Baby is probably the most laid-back song on the album, which isn't saying much. Next up is one of my favorites, Doctor Please. One of the only two original songs, this one has some weird lyrics. According to Dickie Peterson, it is supposed to be glorifying drugs. The guitar work is the best part of the whole song in my opinion, it is pure stoner rock guitar work full of low notes and noise. The song has an overall loose feeling, kind of like a jam fueled by drugs. My second favorite song on the album.
We come to the next song Out of Focus, which is sort of laid-back. It changes drastically though as it keeps going though, getting noisier and noisier. A great overall song. Next is my favorite song, Parchment Farm. This is an old blues song about Parchman Farm, a prison in Mississippi. This is a very fast-paced song that is basically a jam. It goes from the fast beginning into a noisy guitar solo, then a slow part with drums and bass. The guitar really sledgehammers when it comes back in in this part. After some of that part, it goes back into the fast part and then it blows up and ends. To end the album is Second Time Around. This is arguably the most unfocused song on the album because it is basically made of guitar noise, somewhat off-tempo drumming, and awesome bass-playing. They claimed the album was fueled by LSD, and this song has the most evidence of that statement. It reminds of the Velvet Underground song "I Heard Her Call My Name". After all the craziness, the song abruptly ends.
Overall, this was probably the first heavy metal album. Maybe not the first heavy metal songs, but the first band who really did to it what came later. It is a very enjoyable listen for almost all metalheads, except the black metal elitists. It was definitely worth the $10 I spent on it. Now, I need to get a vinyl copy. By the way, did I mention Geddy Lee (Rush) likes it?
