Album Review: Two Headed Beast - "Wizard Mountain"

The world of hard rock, of heavy metal, is wonderfully varied, so much in fact, there are distinct genre silos underneath the hard/heavy umbrella, many of them having filled up decades ago, going nearly dormant as ever newer ones are molded out of the settling dust of their predecessors. Perhaps the granddaddy genre has been the audacious, in your face sound of traditional heavy metal that grew out of progenitors such as Led Zeppelin, Blue Cheer, and Black Sabbath. That heavy metal sound was personified by bands such as Judas Priest, Megadeth, and Iron Maiden, to name a miniscule few. It was a sound that dominated the scene in the mid to late 70s and into the bulk of the 80s before sort of weirdly fusing into the over the top sounds of big hair bands. The excessiveness of big hair, though, prepped us for the wonderful grunge explosion as well as the almost unnoticed rumbling of stoner/desert rock of the 90s. Many other sounds have come, and gone. For anyone exploring for the first time any version of wondrous, amplified metal vibrations, old or new, there is an overabundance of choices. Gifted musicians can draw from an almost limitless supply of inspirational music, the possibilities are endless. This is what ran through my mind when I first heard "Wizard Mountain". Of course, I have no idea how Two Headed Beast may have arrived upon their signature sound, I just know I hear the wonderfully deep, heavy fuzz of stoner/doom rock in their vigorous riffs and searing solos, but, in the blink of a photon, I am ripped back to an earlier era as soon as those incredible vocals of Brian Allen kick in. "Wizard Mountain" quickly concentrates my focus, drawing me deep into its wicked melodies and triumphant chorus, down into the murky depths of low tuned and amplified energy, emboldened by the soaring, invigorating intonations of Allen's vocal time machine. The pairing of traditional metal vocals and bottom dark stoner/doom guitar is somehow brilliant, revitalizing, and emboldening. It's a physical reaction to a spiritual rendering, teleporting me to a time and place of power and potential.

Two Headed Beast hail from Portland, Oregon. Band members include John Hughes, Jason Dunn, Shawn Ferguson, Scott Speelman, and vocalist Brian Allen.

The initial track, "Valley of Skulls", immediately opens with the double whammy of deep, fuzzy guitar and powerfully rendered vocals that is the consistent and persistent hallmark of every track to follow. The tempo is dangerous, the magnitude bold, and the realization you're in for a unique and brilliant ride quickly sets in.

"Two Ton Sky" starts off with bare bones, building up to an all-out assault of power and force. The drumwork here is simply marvelous, pounding out a primal beat of mammoth proportions, propped up wonderfully by the bruising dance of bass and guitar, magnified again by those laser sharp vocals.

The eponymous title track, "Witch Mountain", is like a pugilist stalking his opponent, steadily moving forward step by step, delivering hammer blow after ruthless hammer blow until the sudden sound of silence signals the end.

"Apollyon the Destroyer" changes the pace, flowing down a psychedelic bridge of color and static before charging up a steeper trajectory of power and amperage. "Hail the Chief" is a frontal assault of bad attitude and snarl. "Boneyard" and "Blackball' pay homage to traditional metal in measured advances of ragged vocals and steady riffage.

This brings us to the unofficial closer, "Curse of the White Owl" where Two Headed Beast dust off their stoner rock foot pedals and crank up the fuzz in a magnificent display of hook and heat. The solos soar beyond the stratosphere, while the measured tempos of riff and stick are darkly subterranean. Allen's vocals are exquisite on this track, offering a sing along rendition in which no one can match his gifted ability, but will have fun in attempting to do so.

Two Headed Beast offer up a brief coda that is pinned to the tail end of the penultimate song in "Tail of the Owl", a fun little ditty of psychedelic conclusion.

bandcamp >>|<< facebook

Quick Hit From Ambassador

"As soon as track one "Astado Natural" starts to play an instant haze of smoke fills the room. My immediate thought from the first note was Blue Cheer, but as the song continued on things became fuzzier and fuzzier. The band doesn't wander very far from the heavy, and I mean heavy blues, although the sinister riff on "El Siniestro" hits some pretty evil doom territory. The band hails from Argentina, so the lyrics are primarily barked in the band's native language, regardless of the language barrier the band tears it up track after track on this damn fine demo. Take a Hit and pass this along!

Facebook | Bandcamp

Flashback Friday - Blue Cheer

Alright…welcome to the first ever edition of our new feature here on Heavy Planet, Flashback Friday. The goal here is to dig into the archives of this music we love and pull out some of the classics, legends and downright innovators who have done their part to get us where we are today. I chose Blue Cheer as the focus of my inaugural Flashback Friday feature because I feel they're often overlooked and somewhat under appreciated when it comes to discussions about the origins of not only stoner rock, but heavy music in general.

The band got their start in San Francisco in the late 1960's during the now legendary Haight-Ashbury psychedelic rock renaissance that spawned bands like Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin and of course, the Grateful Dead. Known as much for their experimentation with psychedelic drugs as for the music they created, these bands created a hippie culture that can still be seen to this day. But while everyone else was spewing peace, love and happiness, the three guys in Blue Cheer, who were no strangers to the drug subculture (after all, the name of their band comes from a type of LSD), were about to truly put the power into the term "flower power".

The band was one of the first ever "power trios" (the argument could be made they were THE first) and although the lineup changed countless times throughout the years, the classic three were Dickie Peterson (Vocals/Bass), Leigh Stephens (Guitar) and Paul Whaley (Drums). This lineup recorded two albums together, the legendary debut Vincebus Eruptum as well as the band's sophomore effort Outsideinside. The former featured the song for which Blue Cheer is perhaps best known, a psychedelic and devastating cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues". If you haven't seen the video for this one, scroll down to the end of this post and have a look. I defy anyone to tell me these guys weren't the first stoner rock band after seeing that clip.

After Outsideinside, Leigh Stephens left Blue Cheer due to his tiring of the rampant drug use within the band, particularly while attempting to play live. In fact, the band's live shows were becoming something of a spectacle due to their wall of amplifiers onstage (unheard of at the time), deafening volumes (they're still considered to be one of the loudest bands in history) and the complete annihilation of their instruments at the end of their performances (years before Nirvana would become known for doing the same thing). From that point on, Blue Cheer's lineup would remain in a near constant state of flux.

The third album New Improved featured two replacement guitarists for Leigh Stephens and found the band exploring a more "classic rock" sound. It would prove to be the last album that Blue Cheer would record as a "power trio" as subsequent records would feature keyboards and an additional guitar, among other instruments. The band would record three more albums between 1969 and 1971 with Dickie Peterson being the only constant in Blue Cheer's ever changing lineup, and by 1972 they finally decided to call it quits.

Over the course of the next three decades, Dickie Peterson revived Blue Cheer a number of different times with a revolving cast of musicians, and managed to crank out four more albums before his death from prostate cancer in 2009. The band's legacy and clout remained intact throughout their near 40 year career as is evident when you see the people associated with them, like Jack Endino (legendary producer for Soundgarden, Nirvana, TAD, Mudhoney, Nebula and High on Fire to name a few), who helped produce their 1990 release "Highlights and Lowlives" and Joe Hasselvander (Pentagram drummer), who played on their 2007 (and final) record "What Doesn't Kill You…".

With no disrespect intended towards the mighty Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer's Vincebus Eruptum was released two years prior to that band's classic eponymous debut…an album that many consider to be the originator of heavy music. In my opinion, it's Blue Cheer who deserves this distinction. With their fuzzed out wall of distortion and noise, the band single handedly changed the face of rock music and paved the way for what we now know as stoner rock. So next time you're looking for a new band to burn one to, why not go the other way and check out a classic band that can still kick your ass all these years later...why not check out Blue Cheer?



Website|last.fm|Buy here

Blue Cheer Needs Your Help

Blue Cheer is asking you to take part in their first official DVD, which will include a documentary extra.

We would like your thoughts and/or comments, good or bad, influences, if any, about Blue Cheer, on a separate short clip, done on video or dvd format. It can be just a 60 second clip or a minutes long.


The deadline has been pushed back until December.


For more details contact Gabrielle at the Blue Cheer Myspace site, myspace.com/bluecheer.

Album Of The Day-Blue Cheer-"Outsideinside" (1968)

Every once in a while I like to slide a classic rock album in as Album Of The Day. This time around, I chose "Outsideinside" by Blue Cheer. This album along with "Vincebus Eruptum" were way ahead of their time. Truly under appreciated classics to say the least.



Review:

There's a swagger and aggression to Blue Cheer's power blues that can be traced through the decades of heavy metal and the post-metal mutations of hard music. The second of only two Blue Cheer recordings featuring the classic lineup of Leigh Stephens on guitar, Dickie Peterson on bass and lead vocals, and Paul Whaley playing drums, Outsideinside, along with its predecessor, Vincebus Eruptum, ranks among the most underappreciated hard rock collections ever. Blue Cheer's second, more refined offering stands as a testament to the power-for-its-own-sake mentality that helped forge '70s hard rock out of the blues, psychedelia, and energetic rock & roll. Whaley's hyper drumming sounds almost punk during a frantic rework of the Rolling Stone's "Satisfaction" and the instrumental "Magnolia Caboose Babyfinger." This was quite an accomplishment considering that Outsideinside was released a full year before either the Stooges' debut or MC5's Kick Out the Jams. Stephens' fuzzed-out guitar solos shift and weave through each of Outsideinside's nine tracks, but the guitars work best as rhythmic support of Peterson's vocals on the standout tracks "Just a Little Bit" and "Come and Get It." Unfortunately, Blue Cheer simply did not possess the virtuosity to fight through the record's more ambitious moments; when the San Francisco trio tries to cop Hendrix in "Sun Cycle," the music sputters and loses focus. In true metal tradition, critics have generally ignored Blue Cheer's vast musical influence except for the most derivative of bands. Meanwhile, artists like Smashing Pumpkins, Mudhoney, and the Melvins have consistently covered the group both live and in the studio. Anyone interested in the history of hard music will want to familiarize themselves with this exceptional, innovative release. (Vincent Jeffries, All Music Guide)

Track Listing:

01. "Feathers from Your Tree"-3:29
02. "Sun Cycle"-4:12
03. "Just a Little Bit"-3:24
04. "Gypsy Ball"-2:57
05. "Come and Get It"-3:13
06. "Satisfaction"-5:05 (Rolling Stones cover)
07. "The Hunter"-4:22
08. "Magnolia Caboose"-1:38
09. "Babylon"-4:22
10. "Fortunes"-2:20 (Akarma version bonus track)

Listen

MySpace
Official Website

Purchase Album Here