HERO

This one goes on my lost gem shelf. One of the weirdest albums I've heard in a while but I've taken quite a liking to it. At first play you might really think this sucks but it is a definite grower.

It might be categorized as Italian symphonic but to my ears this is lost hard psych rock. Very strange, like mixing Sabbath riffs with Jan Dukes de Grey, Traffic pacing, and some Morrison darkness in the lyrics.

Another view of the sound is as follows: "Musically I would consider Hero a combination of art rock with a heavy progressive feel, there are vibes from Gong, Van Der Graaf Generator, early Floyd and King Crimson most definitely, but there is also a dark doomy sound to it as well." [end quote from www.Italianprog.com]

The 9-minute standout track "Clapping and Smiling" is really quite a departure from the earlier tracks, featuring a lovely piano and folksy acoustic guitar for the first third. Then things again get powerful with hard vocals, Bill Ward style drumming and guitar that begs to be played loud. That final third of the song slows down again and gets pretty spacey and reminds me a little of Syd Barrett were he fronting a hard rock band! I told you this was weird stuff!

The album closes with a nice acoustic piece called "Buzzard" which serves to smooth out the previous sonic assaults and talk us in off the ledge. The final lyrical line is: "My pain will serve to be something." Before the album was even released their guitarist Massimo was killed in an auto wreck adding further weight to the strange mood of this work.

The playing is both amateurish-sounding in places and yet still quite compelling overall. The LP-sleeve reissued CD is very nice with a band history and bonus track. Vocals are in English.

Hero is an album that has become a prized keeper for me but I understand it will appeal to a relatively small portion of this site. For me this is a 4-star album but for many of you it will be 2-3 I would guess. If you are really into early 70s dark and weird hard rock that defies easy categorizing, Hero might blow your mind. Or perhaps just irritate your family.

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