FEATURE: Five Classic Hard Rock Albums You Never Knew Existed

So I thought I'd take a little break from all the Yes reviews this week to give you something a little different. Everyone knows the heavy hitters of early-1970's hard rock: Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Uriah Heep are all prime examples of bands that pioneered heavy metal during the genre's infancy. But they weren't the only ones trading on the potent, blues-based weightiness of the era. Countless bands embraced the proto-metal aesthetic, providing record collectors and riff hounds with a seemingly endless supply of unique, creative and bone-crushingly heavy music from pretty much every country that had a recording industry in the early '70s.

So put on your hard hat, light your incense and dust off your air guitar: Here are five of the best little-known, early-'70s heavy gems from around the world:

1. Sir Lord Baltimore – Kingdom Come (1970, Mercury)



This Brooklyn-based outfit holds the distinction of being the first act to be described as “heavy metal” in print. The group's debut album, “Kingdom Come,” is like a ball of energy from start to finish. The band's razor-sharp fuzz riffs, frequently played in a piercing middle-to-upper register for maximum guitar-face, compliment drummer/vocalist John Garner's frantic tempos and over-the-top vocals. Unfortunately, the group would call it a day after only one more self-titled album.

2. Captain Beyond – Captain Beyond (1972, Capricon)



Something of a supergroup, Captain Beyond brought together former members of Iron Butterfly and Deep Purple for a three-album run between 1972 and 1977. Their self-titled debut is the best of these, mixing creative riffs, crazy time changes, soulful vocals and utterly schizophrenic drumming together for an almost overwhelmingly exciting musical gumbo. Unlike many records of the era, no song goes over 4 minutes and no solo overstays its welcome, even as each song crams in about a million and a half riffs. The whole thing is topped off with a hilariously nonsensical concept about expanding your mind and how the moon speaks to the sea. How can you resist?

3. Buffalo – Volcanic Rock



While bands like Captain Beyond obviously cared about the art of what they were doing, Australia's Buffalo made no bones about what they were up to: primitive, druggy riff-metal that slogs it out in a confrontational and decidedly non-commercial manner. The guitars sound like vacuum cleaners, vocalist Dave Tice sounds like he could have played King Leonidas in Frank Miller's “300” and half of the songs sound like the band was on Quaaludes when they were recorded. Unfortunately, Buffalo only put out one more classic album (“Buffalo Only Want You For Your Body”) before settling into a more mainstream hard rock sound that lasted until their 1977 breakup.

4. Flower Travellin' Band – Satori (1971, Atlantic)



Proving the West by no means had the heavy rock market cornered in the early '70s, Japan's Flower Travellin' Band released two albums of popular Western rock covers before recording their first LP of entirely original music in 1971. Despite the band's reputation as a covers act, Satori is one of the most original records of the era, fusing psychedelic, progressive and heavy rock in a manner that has so far defied all critical attempts at pigeonholing.

Satori is no commercial exercise – the whole album is comprised of one five-part, experimental composition, mostly set in a dark and foreboding mood in the Black Sabbath tradition but clearly transcending that band's influence. There are so many twists and surprises it would be unfair to divulge more, but safe to say there is nothing else like Satori – it's an incredible journey for the more adventurous headbanger.

5. Bang – Bang! (1971, Capitol)



Philly-based hard rockers Bang were clearly influenced by Black Sabbath, with guitarist Frank Glicken carefully emulating Tony Iommi's steamroller guitar tone and vocalist Frank Ferrara giving us his best wailing Ozzy impression. But this isn't quite a clone band: whereas Sabbath's focus was almost exclusively doom and gloom, Bang add elements of Beatlesesque pop to their ultra-sludgy riffs, producing a somewhat peculiar but undoubtedly original and exciting sound. That doesn't mean there isn't plenty of room for good, old-fashioned metal: “The Queen” has a nice and gloomy riff, and “Future Shock” is nothing more than pure doom metal about 15 years before the fact.

There you have it. Of course, these albums are just the beginning. Hundreds, if not thousands, of bands popped up in the early '70s playing this kind of music, and collectors are still discovering new unheard-of gems, oftentimes faster than reissue labels can keep up with them. Part of what makes this hobby so exciting is the thought that somewhere in someone's basement lies a tape or private vinyl run of some never-heard, ultra-heavy proto-metal band that never made it. Somehow, we never tire of this music recorded four decades ago, a testament to the creative energy and sheer quality of the early 1970s music scene.