SEA SHANTIES

When I first listened to this album I couldn't believe it was from 1969; it is way ahead of the time. Definitely the heaviest album of that aera. Its trademark is the constant battling between electric guitar and electric violin.

The album starts right away with a heavy electric guitar riff out of one of the boxes, a pumping bass and drums enter, the guitar riff is answered with heavy electric violin out of the other box, and then "Futilist's Lament" is on the way. The vocals of Tony Hill sound a bit like Jim Morrison; the lyrics throughout the whole album are rather pessimistic.

The second track, "Death Warmed Up", is an instrumental and probably the first prog metal piece ever. Guitar and violin together play a very complicated theme of about 3 minutes length, which is repeated once. Then it looks as if they go into another repetition, but what follows for the last 4 minutes is a wild battle between electric guitar and electric violin.

"Pushed, But Not Forgotten" starts quietly with some phased guitar and melancholic violin, over which Hill sings. But the silence is not for long, soon heavy guitar crashes again, and the violin counters maniacally. The song ends with sad viloin over quiet guitar chords.

"Walking Down Their Outlook" provides an interesting early example of violin and guitar actually playing two different voices, which is rare in rock music.

"Missing Out" has a slightly bluesy feeling, although a lot heavier than blues usually is.

"Nowhere" finally is what one could call a ballad, with lines like "On the stage there is no door, at your feet the moving floor decides to burn", yet again it is very heavy, as the whole album.

The mix is not the best, but who cares? The music is fantastic! I rarely deal out 5 stars, but this one deserves it. Be warned though: This album is not for the timid!