TYBURN TALL

German Hard/Progressive Rock band from Speyer.Tyburn Tall originated from the late-60's group The Screamers, where guitarist Werner Gallo, drummer Hanns Dechant and bassist Stefan Kowa played together.The first formation of Tyburn Tall included Hermann Damiantschitsch on flutes and Gunther Goettsche on keyboards, they were replaced in 1971 by keyboardist Reinhard Magin and singer Klaus Fresenius.This formation recorded the band's self-titled debut in 1972, a very rare private LP pressed in only 200 copies, but reissued as CD in 1996 by Garden of Delights.

Tyburn Tall were basically a guitar/organ-driven Hard Rock band with progressive flavors in their music, having a heavy and often demanding sound, influenced by the likes of URIAH HEEP and DEEP PURPLE.Not only the Germans seemed to have been influenced by the British school of Hard Prog, but the vocals are also in English with singer Klaus Fresenius having a high-pitched, screaming style of an acquired taste.Three very long cuts along with a shorter one is the musical content of the original album, quite typical of the style.Hammond organ and guitars are the kings here.Fiery solos, hard grooves, long keyboard runs and stretched jamming passages characterize the approach of the band, split between catchy vocal parts and loose instrumental crescendos of little originality.The sound of the recordings is mediocre and the overall feeling is that Tyburn Tall fell into obscurity, because they had nothing new to add to the German scene, though their music was played with endless amounts of energy and passion.The CD reissue comes with two extra tracks, recorded live and covering two well-known Colosseum tunes.

Things are simple.If you starve for organ-driven Proto-Prog stuff in the vein of DEEP PURPLE or URIAH HEEP, Tyburn Tall is your band.Otherwise you will be hardly impressed by their music...2.5 stars.