WARPIG

As was the case with many promising bands smitten by their rock star heroes of the 60s and followed suit in the 70s, WARPIG was one of many talented bands that took its musical passion to the live circuit and quickly found a veritable following only to have the momentum crushed by the misfortunation of bad management, bankrupt labels and well just bad luck. This band which obviously derived its name from the famous Black Sabbath song was the brainchild of guitarist and vocalist Rick Donmoyer of Woodstock, Ontario after honing his chops in a number of bands including The Turbines, The Kingbees and Mass Destruction. Although formed as far back as 1968 after wooing fellow Mass Destruction members including bassist Terry Brett, keyboardist / guitarist Dana Snitch and drummer Terry Hook and spent many a night rehearsing in Donmoyer's basement.

Having tightened their musical interplay as a band throughout Toronto pub scene, WARPIG built up a reputation as a fierce and charismatic band that built a sizable following and succeeded in capturing attention until one fateful night the label owner of Fonthill Records caught a show and immediately signed the band to his label in late 1968. While continuing to write its own original material and slowly shedding its reliance on cover songs, the band's trajectory totally shifted in 1969 when Led Zeppelin engaged on their massive tour that took Canada by storm. The results infused up and coming bands like WARPIG with a sense of new energetic drive and vitality and the band was basically ready for primetime except for the fact they were forced to finance their own recording expenses.

The band finally hit the studio in 1970 and delivered a unique mix of sounds that took all the contemporary sounds of the era into consideration. With a range of sounds that mixed everything from organ driven Deep Purple and the bluesy rock proto-metal of Led Zeppelin along with surf rock, psychedelic sounds as well as a Black Sabbath trick or two, WARPIG proved to craft a diversity of sounds that made other local bands pale in comparison. The band's sole album would have to wait a couple years for release due to the fact that the label Fonthill had been taken over by London Records in 1971 which renegotiated the contract and delayed the album's actual release until 1972 well after the signature sound of the band's recordings had quickly fallen out of fashion. And to make matters worse the band's attempt to release a second followup was thwarted by the lack of proper management and utter neglect causing a loss of all momentum that ultimately forced WARPIG to call it quits.

That's really too bad because WARPIG delivered the quintessential hard rock album of 1970 at the time when the psychedelic rock 60s was metamorphosing into the hard rock 70s but the band was a bit more sophisticated than the average heavy rocker of the era and proved to be able to craft more complex progressive compositions as well as capturing the perfect loose wire harder rock sounds like a less structured jam band tackling the triumvirate unification of Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and a touch of Sabbath along with the 60s hangover sounds of Cream and Hendrix. Add to that some forays into the world of classical Baroque and it's actually quite admirable how experimental WARPIG really was in its musical palette as it fused the fiery passion of unhinged youthful rock with other moments of hi-brow sophistication. The band's ability to shift from raucous rockers to soulful skillful efficacy were all the right ingredients for a world class 70s rock band to make it to the big time but fate would prove otherwise.

This is an album that didn't appeal to me at first but as i've learned to tune into the zeitgeist of the timeline and accept that this is really a 1970 album that was simply delayed, my perception of this excellent album has shifted dramatically. From the feisty crowd pleasing rockers "Flaggit" and "Rock Star" to the doom-laden Sabbath inspired "Melody With Balls" or the classically infused "Advance AM" (that's A-minor) and proggy "U.X.I.B." the album has a lot to offer and best of all the tracks take you on a wild ride that sort of mixes it altogether for the crazed closer "The Moth" that tackles the world of heavy prog with foot-stomping rhythms accompanied by unorthodox time signatures and bouts of freakery. In the end i've grown to love this album a lot more than when it sounded like a dated relic from the past that i didn't quite get yet.

'Warpig' - Warpig (63/100)

Many of the psychedelic blues rockers circa 1970 tend to cover the same narrow strip of territory soundwise, but Warpig are distinguished for perhaps being the first band I've heard from the style to be compatriots of mine. The crusade to take rock to new heights of fuzz and distortion with the help of blues tricks was a largely British movement, but it had its followers around the world. I recently listened to Australia's contribution to this dated style with Blackfeather and their debut At the Mountains of Madness. Checking out Warpig has felt like a natural continuation of that experience; both bands essentially petered out following their debuts, each took the British hard rock formula to their respective ends of the Commonwealth, and both managed to carve out decently memorable records without necessarily advancing the template they worked with. Warpig's self-titled debut has not aged well in the decades since its release, but for all its primitive simplicity, they had a character and energy to them that set them apart from the wannabes.

Sex, sleaze, and a liberal dose of early Deep Purple influence; add these things together and you should have a solid idea what Warpig sound like. Fronted capably by Rick Donmoyer, the album does not mince words, nor pull its punches. While their set-up was generally straightforward, Warpig-- like many of their heavy psych contemporaries-- opted to play around with a variety of different scopes in their music. "Flaggit" and "Tough Nuts" are fast and to-the-point blues rockers, while "Melody with Balls" and the enigmatically titled "U.X.I.B" are slower, almost recalling the almighty Black Sabbath, who released their own debut earlier the same year. While there's no doubting Warpig had their hearts set on unpretentious distortion worship, they occasionally demonstrate higher aims here. "Advance in A Minor" is a surprisingly highbrow instrumental; modern ears might still dismiss it as simplistic, but it's enough to show these guys weren't as simplistic as some of their more straightforward material makes them out to be.

Warpig flaunt their Deep Purple influence, mostly through the keyboard presence, performed here by Dana Smith. Beyond that, the band offer a very basic hard rock set-up. The drums are tight and punchy, and the guitar solos (of which there are plenty) don't dare to tread outside the comforting familiarity of the pentatonic scale. Even for their time, I don't think Warpig would be turning any heads with their style; of the bands I've heard playing this style, these guys sound like most of them. Where I think Warpig begin to stand out is the personality they inject into the formula. As a rule, bands of their ilk attempted to put a faster, grittier and generally heavier angle on the common formula they were using. In this regard, their basic premise wasn't much different from the average, but I haven't heard too many that got across the same extent of energy. Warpig exhibit their lustful motivations front and centre. Excluding the uncharacteristically poetic "Sunflight" (which reminds me of Blue Oyster Cult, and may be my favourite cut off the album) Rick Donmoyer's lyrics explicitly recount the sexual urges that go along with the rockstar lifestyle. Like the music, the lyrics are blunt, and difficult to enjoy on more than a surface level, but I have to admire the fact that they didn't try to dress up their subject with metaphor or flowery imagery.

Although claims that they took their name from a similarly-titled tune by Black Sabbath are decidedly false (Paranoid wouldn't be released until the latter half of the same year) it's interesting to me that people would think of Sabbath while listening to Warpig. It's not at all surprising to me, either; although the album's not quite heavy enough to warrant direction comparison with the proto-doomsters, there's an ominous edge to some of their riffs (most notably those in "U.X.I.B") that may very well peg Warpig as one of Canada's first proto-metal acts. This fact alone should pique the curiosity of rock historians, if no one else. Musically speaking, Warpig were a fair bit better than the unknown mediocres that saturated 1970 with this sort of primitive fuzz. Listeners in search of an early progressive rock masterpiece will come out empty-handed, however. This is a solid album, but it's nothing you won't have already heard many times before.

Sole self-titled album from a Canadian heavy/proto-prog group that did not likely take their names from the Sabbath song. A double guitar quartet, even though Dana Snitch plays keyboards as well (organ & piano mainly) came from Southern Ontario (let's say Toronto was their backyard) and developed a hard-driving prog that hovers between Deep Purple, Atomic Rooster and other hard rockin' British groups of the times. Their only album got released twice, the second time in72 on a different label, got remastered and benefited from a new sleeve "artwork" (the one featured above), but the first pressing is now much- sought after.

The album opener Flaggit was also issued as a single and it's a catchy heavy rock up- tempo blues-derived tune, enthralling despite the band's lack of a distinct sound, but the guitars are well out front. Tough Nuts is more of the same. The following Melody With Balls is a slower and heavier track, where Donmoyer's guitar seems to have slept with Blackmore's Stratocaster and borrowed its timbre. The next (album-longest) track, Advance Am, is quite a (welcomed) change, but the piano-dominated tune is a rather patchy attempt at being progressive, though not entirely convincing, even if the piano seems to be played like a harpsichord. Rock Star is the B-side of the single, but from what I hear, it would've been more successful than its A-side. Sunflight is definitely one of the better track on the album, and is a bit reminiscent of Wishbone Ash and Uriah Heep. Next up is U.X.I.B. (don't ask), starting on a harpsichord that leads you into an organ and heavy guitar blues chords and riffs, before veering slightly psych and a tad oriental, like East Of Eden's debut. The closing Moth is in line with the rest of the album, but it might just be the fastest song of theirs (well outside the slow middle section), and derails completely at the end wuith that looney laughter.

While the second release of their album drew some sales, it might just seem to today's progheads that Warpig's work came a tad too late for that summer of 73. Then first the drummer first, then the keyboardist would leave the band and if the band remained alive, opening concerts for major acts throughout Ontario until 75, even starting a second album, it would be it in terms of releases. The Cd reissue of 06 on Relapse is a legit one and sports the second (London label) sleeve While Warpig might appear a bit raw and rough- edged to symphonic progheads, they were part of the second wave of bands behind the pioneering groups like Nucleus, Plastic Cloud, Collectors (future Chilliwack), Guess Who, etc?. By all means not essential at all, but still a pleasant manner to fill you shelves. Your call really.