RENAISSANCE

Vanilla Fudge is the archetypical band for the hard-rock movement. Already on their first record they introduced the hammond organ and heavy guitar sound, which was adopted by famous bands as Deep Purple; the typical Vanilla Fudge sang was adopted by Uriah Heep. While I'm not fond of the debut of Vanilla Fudge, because of the covers of the Beatles and others, I'm fond of this Renaissance. This record is mainly produced with own compositions, which offers great possibilities for the different bandmembers to show their excellent skills. The sang did largely improve and became mature.

In 1968 hard-rock was in a childish fase. Just a few bands did experiment with heavy sounds like the Blue Cheer and this Vanilla Fudge. The Blue Cheer became a proto-type for metal (especially Black Sabath) and Vanilla Fudge for hard-rock. I quess the members of Deep Purple were so much impressed by this record they did not only copied Fudge's sound, but also this albumcover. If this record was called Vanilla Fudge in Rock everyone should have noticed the great resemblance of the great stone sculptures of the Fudges members and Deep Purple members!

Enough about the historical impact of this great record and let's talk about the music itself. The most songs start with silent, slightly psychedelic passages and then turn into hardrock monsters. The progression of the songs makes this music proto-prog, because of it's intellectual and emotional value. The heavy passages are as heavy as a musician can control it's instrument. Sometimes it is a bit chaotic, but it sounds really impressive. The sang is really convincing on this record and shows panic in the voice. The musicians all have a semi-free role: they constantly fit within the composition, but seem to have the freedom to have their own interpretation.

The compositions are strong. The music is dynamic with it's heavy and silent passages flowing easily into each other. The sang consist of different vocalists and high background vocals; using all possibilities to enhance the compositions. The total effect is quiet awesome. There is still one cover on this record: the Season of the Wich's original version is of Donovan. This version however is much creepier and may be the cover Vanilla Fudge did make.

This record is a must-have for everyone interested is hard-rock, the origin of hard-rock and protoprog. This is the perfect record showing how hard-rock was developed out of the psychedelic scene. This record is especially advised for fans of Deep Purple and Uriah Heep. Rating: 5/5 10/10 98/100