BLACK WIDOW

Black Widow's second album finds them dialling back the psychedelic and occult influences on their sound, yielding a sort of bluesy proto-prog approach. Opening number Tears and Wine, for instance, lands particularly close to the sound Audience had circa House On the Hill when it comes to finding comparisons on the wider scene, particularly on the opening Tears and Wine; other moments, like The Journey or Poser, suggest the influence of early Deep Purple. Zoot Taylor's organ and piano contributions and Clive Jones' interjections on flute and sax make sure that there's a touch of psych-prog still in play, but it's certainly less original and distinctive than their debut album, Sacrifice.

This may have boded ill for Black Widow going forwards, lending credence to the perception that once they moved away from their eye-catching early concept there wasn't that much to them, and certainly there's a touch of the "transitional album" here. On the plus side, this does mean that the sound is fairly varied; on the downside, it'll be a rare listener that loves all of these tunes equally. The Gypsy, for instance is a mostly-acoustic number save for a volcanic electric guitar solo, which isn't quite a novelty song but feels like it's at risk of going in that direction at any moment.

There's flashes of a potentially new vision here and there; Mary Clark, in particular, comes across especially well, though there's a caveat here - it's actually a left-over song from the Sacrifice sessions, the earlier version of which was left off the album because it didn't fit the concept, and so the update here is more of a flash of the genius which once animated the band rather than the light at the end of the tunnel for their creative crisis.

Had Black Widow swiftly found a strong new creative vision to pursue after moving on from the style of Sacrifice, perhaps their history would have been different. As it stands, it's easy to see how at the time the album didn't quite hit the mark - anyone keen for the Sacrifice approach would have felt disappointed, anyone open to a new direction might regard what they're playing here as rather similar to what a lot of progressive groups were doing at the time. In retrospect, it's not half bad, with The Journey and Mark Clark being particular highlights, but it's unsurprising it got lost in the shuffle. One for those who particularly like the sound of the more Deep Purple-ish end of proto-prog.