1970′s Historic & Classic Rock Albums . . . . . . . . . . QUATERMASS. . . . . . . MAY 1970

EXPERIENCE PSYCHEDELIC BLUES HARD ROCK METAL PROG HISTORY!

QUATERMASS
QUATERMASS – May 1970

QUATERMASS –  POWERFUL BEAUTIFUL HARD ROCK!
Drum, Bass, Organ – and  Strings – the best composed, performed, engineered and produced LP of 1970 – and that’s not even a bold statement, it’s fact.  Within a year that will forever stand out as an extreme high-point in Rock History with many solid eternal classics released, Quatermass, was a true gift for those of us fortunate enough to have been totally enjoying this album then, and for the past forty-three years.

QUATERMASS were easily one of the underlying seminal forces of Metal / Prog  / Blues / Rock and are by far the Best Unknown Band EVER that somehow slipped through the entire Rock History canon. And they are also easily one of my personal favorite bands and albums – seriously this LP still gives me the chills – it’s that good!!

Each song on the album is 100% strong, no filler, solid super hard Rock with an incredible use of a real string orchestra. You won’t believe it!
This is the definitive synthesis of Rock and Classical Orchestration; violins, cellos, violas; they counter-point and blend seamlessly into a beyond-belief sonic orgasmic Rock Fest.

And since I’m a champion of the Hammond organ, I was thrilled and still am at Pete Robinson’s highly-creative “lead guitar” use – it’s phenomenal!
Johnny Gustafson is one of the great unsung vocalists of all time and his bass lines are epic and the epitome of Rock-bottom heavy metal thunderous rhythm.
Mick Underwood’s drumming is masterful – he’s got his jazz riffs and rock down and knows his classical beats intuitively.
I’ve listened to this LP so many times that I can almost recite the whole thing in my head. I’m serious – this album is epic!

Legend has it that Deep Purple’s break-up and Ritchie Blackmore’s departure is due to his insistence and Deep Purple’s resistance to  record:
QUATERMASS – ENTROPY / BLACK SHEEP OF THE FAMILY  – eventually he did with Blackmore’s Rainbow.
QUATERMASS- POST WAR SATURDAY ECHO – psychedelic soul blues perfection is so, so good, it’s too good, late night blues that erupts into full-blown massive hard rock and back again.  And the lyrics – still precisely on the mark now as then – life issues you can’t escape.
QUATERMASS -GOOD LORD KNOWS – continues with soulful life issues and builds to the insane monster that is:
QUATERMASS – UP ON THE GROUND  – again all three elements: Bass, Drums, Organ, join into a huge Chunk of Rock – and it doesn’t let up, this monster is followed by:
QUATERMASS-  GEMINI – probably the only “average” song on the LP which would be the best song on any other band’s album – now what does that say?  That’s right these guy’s were the absolute shit! Plus this is a total Deep Purple “In Rock” song!
And speaking of Deep Purple; this Quatermass LP totally fell into the cracks as it came out just before Deep Purple’s “In Rock” which as we know became an Etched-In-Rock classic that put Deep Purple at the top of all Hard Rock bands at the time .  And without any promotion by their label Harvest, Quatermass was virtually unknown by the whole Rock Community.  Deep Purple need to thank Harvest for if Quatermass were promoted this would have been in every Rocker’s LP collection and cut into Deep Purple’s profits and popularity!
Which brings us to:
QUATERMASS – MAKE UP YOUR MIND – a true excursion into Prog Rock, but Hard Prog Rock, no sissy stuff, a hard line take on the emerging genre – a tight precision jam with a heavy blues dirge undercurrent that puts Black Sabbath to shame.
And finally the majestic orchestral masterpiece:
QUATERMASS – LAUGHING TACKLE / ENTROPY – Hard Rock and Sublime Strings – flat out awesome!

This is/was as about as close as you can get to a perfect album on all counts, the song-writing and lyrics are deep and meaningful, the vocals match the mood of every lyric and emotion, the bass-lines are some of the strongest memorable riffs in Rock, the drums are perfect and seamlessly connect each transition, the Hammond organ’s use as a lead guitar and the ability to achieve that effect is beyond belief and near magical, the engineering and string arrangements (Paul Buckmaster) are gorgeous and deftly woven into the songs, and the songs – all of them – are the kind that you can listen to over and over again and still get the pleasure and chills that come with those rare moments when a band of musicians come together for a Perfect Storm of Rock – and in this case leave this one indelible, historic, classic, iconic album that will forever stand as one of the Pinnacles of Rock!

And in all its glorious entirety:
QUATERMASS – FULL COMPLETE ALBUM!
The definition of Historic and Classic!

… and maybe it was because Quatermass was just a bit ahead of their time with their perfect combination of rock, prog, blues and metal, that they weren’t recognized for their genius.
Success and appreciation is all about timing and they had it all – just a little too early on the scene.

“Timing Is Everything”, and if you think about it; throughout history and the history of your own life, that’s about the only true fact in this world.

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CHECK OUT THE REST OF THE TOP 79 HISTORIC & CLASSIC 1970s ROCK ALBUMS!