Poobah-Let me in

Ripple
1972/2010

I am always amazed at the amount of great music that gets unearthed from time to time. Hailing from Youngstown, Ohio Poobah released "Let me in" way back in 1972. Unfortunately I never heard of this band until very recently. No matter though as Ripple Music have re-issued this album and it is re-mastered by Tony Dallas Reed of Mos Generator and Stone Axe. The album itself is a mixture of early spine-rattling metal, groove-heavy boogie rock and healthy doses of fuzz splattered psych-rock. It took me about 30 seconds into "Mr. Destroyer" to realize I was in for one of the best re-issues of 2010. "Mr. Destroyer" has a big brain pounding riff and as a whole the song sounds like Black Sabbath, Budgie and Grand Funk Railroad ran into each other head-on. The band shows their versatility with "Enjoy what you have" with it's thick, but mellow vocals and guitars that pull you up of the ground and let you float off with them. "Bowleen" has the band and particularly guitarist/vocalist Jim Gustafson peeling off a seemingly unending barrage of cutting sounds like Ted Nugent with less restraint. The album continues on with the band showing their versatility with different styles. No matter what sound they tackle they have an undeniable ability to create some severely catchy tunes. "Let me in" would be great even if it was just this re-mastered version of the original album, but there is even more. Twelve bonus tracks makes this even more of a treasure. The bonus tracks are of a similar quality as the "Let me in" album. It's a wide and wild variety too as "Make a man outta you" is pure off of the cuff psychedlic-jamming goodness while "Going to rock city" is a more of a steady heavy rocker sounding like a cross between Blue Cheer and BTO. Fans of classic early metal and those who just love fantasticly fuzzed out hard rock are going to think that Christmas has come early with this release.