GREEN EYED GOD

I made the mistake of spending 250 US dollars on this album, and could hardly get that much in trade for it when after about a week this became less interesting and more and more irritating. It is hard to say exactly what doesn't work here. The playing by all five band members is inspired and professional, sometimes pedestrian and if you're lucky on a few tracks more imaginative. The problem is lack of imagination and too many plodding endless heavy riffs that sound like a very poor copy of Black Sabbath. The blues influence in the band's heavy progressive rock sound is combined with equal jazz overtones to make for as well as Sabbath a not even close Raw Material. One of the worst problems with this album is how the songs deal with such morbid and disturbing subject matter, namely almost every song here is about death and usually violent death. They sound sick, pretentious, and uninteresting after the initial impression they make in their extremely heavy rock sound wears off. If you want to hear this album then buy a CD or LP reissue. I would say if one person stands out as somebody who could have made the group better it is a fine guitar player who shows much promise. If one band member can be criticized for making this album not work it would be their horrible vocalist. His voice is weak, emotionless, totally pedestrian, and sounds like he has no idea what he is doing. His pseudo Ian Anderson bluesy voice is not strong enough to carry the material, so he opts for screaming fits. Some people really seem to enjoy this album and it isn't awful, just not outstanding. You're better off buying a Jethro Tull album or spending a lot of money on something with a bit more originality then what is demonstrated here.