GRYPHON

Before they added more prog rock aspects to their sound on Midnight Mushrumps, Gryphon had a fine line in neo-medieval folk music with eccentric takes on classic material, which was expressed in its purest form on this debut album. Not quite as dark or avant-garde as Comus, but still with much more bite than many folk revivalist peers of the era, it's an album which will be incongruous to those who prize the sound they perfected on Red Queen To Gryphon Three, and if you go in expecting something similar you'll probably be confused. However, I actually consider this to be better than Midnight Mushrumps, which was something of a transitional album between the two sounds.