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Friday, September 11, 2009
Missing link?
Detroit's Death were a band back in the 70's and apparently they would later go through different band and sound changes. Around 73-75 they were playing hard rock that was a pre-punk sound. Now the story goes that these three brothers went in and started recording an album in 1974. About seven songs in the person they were working with felt strongly that they needed to change the band name. The band would not and the album was shelved. Now in early 2009 some 35 years after the fact this album sees the light of day and gets released. What we have shows traces of MC-5, Alice Cooper and others. They also have their own personality and their sound can be seen as a link between kind of early 70's hard rock and the mid-70's punk explosion that was coming. That is if this is legitimate. Most reviews except this band's story completely and this band apparently definitely existed in the Detroit scene for a brief time in the 70's. There was supposedly a seven inch released with two songs from this back in 1976 and it was a highly sought after item. However for a lost gem there seems to be surprisingly little in the way of posts or information that was written online prior to the re-issue of this album earlier this year. As we all know there are so many music sites and crazy fans out there that it seems like if this band had done this kind of album back then that multiple people would have already written on the topice before this re-issue. There is also the fact that the sound is great, maybe a bit too clean for a young band who just popped into the studio. Am I being too skeptical? Perhaps. Whether it was recorded in 1974 or 2008 doesn't change the fact that it's a darn good album regardless of it's date of origin. However when it was recorded does change things historically and Death get more credit for being ahead of their time if this was done 35 years ago. According to the majority of reviewers obviously accept this band at their word and there is no way to really disprove it unless Death were to come out and say otherwise and that won't happen. So I suppose I should just enjoy it.
***I might have something about other missing link bands some time soon.
This was another one of those albums you don't hear much about but of course you found it...lol! Great review.
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