Captain Beyond-s/t, 1972

These guys were a bit of a supergroup as each member had been in a known group. Its members were original Deep Purple singer Rod Evans, former Iron Butterfly members guitarist Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt and bassist Lee Dorman plus former Johnny Winter drummer Bobby Caldwell .The sound here is early metal with touches of progressive rock. They mix it up with some different approaches and a generally loose song structure. The guitar alternates between a fairly clean sound and some light distortion. I also love how some songs just come on with guitar parts flying all over the place. The drums are very solid and at times the drummer takes an odd approach to the placement of his parts yet it works. I guess the fact that the drummer was one of the prime writers here gave him the chance to experiment a little. Rod Evans sounds better here to me than he did with Deep Purple. More energized might describe his vocals on this album. There are a few choruses here that sound a bit dated, but that's minor. The best thing about this album to me is that it does rock and there's no beating around the bush. It's complex enough to be interesting, but not so much that it takes away from the edge of the music. These guys are sometimes listed as an influence on modern stoner rock and I can see that. This album has sounded better to me each time I listen to it. I discover more about it each time and I get better feel for what they were trying to accomplish. Not one of the more known bands of their day, but their album shines more now than albums by a number of their peers. Worth checking out for sure.