UPGRADE '70 UK Orig STRAY SUICIDE Sabbath HEAVY Psych

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53

                  SCARCE 1970 BRITISH ORIGINAL

       HARD 'N' HEAVY PSYCH BLASTER!

                         STRAY               

                   SUICIDE

\                                        UK - Transactlantic Records - TRA 233    

TOP MINTY ORIGINAL UK ISSUE ===

SCARCE and sought after (for good reason) 1971 BRITISH first pressing with superior leather-like textured cover and pressing (legendary collected UK Transatlantic Records label) ...SUICIDE...the mighty second, lethal hard-psychrock sizzler that steamrolls listeners with a pulverizing heavy onslaught....

The second STRAY album, ‘Suicide’,  contains some of their best and heaviest songs (though perhaps not as raw and unleashed overall as on 1st ‘Stray’). Regardless, it’s still one hell of an album and most bands never get as good as this. To flesh out the sound palette a bit more, guitarist Del Bromham here also plays organ, electric piano, harpsichord and mellotron (though not at the same time of course), whilst singer Steve Gadd also plays bells and other percussion. ‘Suicide’ was recorded in Olympic Studios in 30 hours.

‘Son Of The Father’ (5:46) begins the album as a slow martial lament, with ghostly distant wind of very quiet drum washes (unless I’m just hearing things) and acoustic strumming, before kicking into a jubilant up-tempo fuzz riff verse/chorus bit and going through numerous highly charged metal riff changes tempered by washes of taped strings on the mellotron. All instrumental by now, the middle section is a fuzz bass and mellotron driven death dirge to a funeral procession that grows all discordant and clashing before grinding a death-defying groove into a sudden mellow respite, reprising the opening of the track and also the verse/chorus/riff/mellotron bit, charging to a classy ending. The lyrics, by the way, concern multiple generations of men going off to war and (often) death.
‘Nature’s Way’ (3:28) is a gutsy fuzzed heavy riff-rocker more reminiscent of the first Stray album, with balls the size of pumpkins and a complex middle section more akin to manic gusto Italian dudes Osage Tribe, though not quite as good. Wicked stuff all the same.
‘Where Do Our Children Belong’ (3:37) is one of the soft songs, but not really bad or anything, as with the occasional softer bits on the debut album. It’s all lazily paced acoustic guitar (or perhaps just quiet electric), nice harmonies, and totally appropriate bass and drums, picking up strength for a bit of a swell a minute before the end, but never breaking out into anything you would call rock.
‘Jericho’ (4:53) remedies that, with timely arrival of kinda dramatic, hard charged ever-changing riff sequences with urgent lyrics, sliding beyond belief into a tumbling dervish of chiselling guitar as the walls of Jericho “tumble to the groooouuuuund!” from the sheer power of loud music. It’s a complex, tight beast of a song that tears along at manic pace for ages without letting up except for an almost mediaeval atmospheric rock dirge in the middle that climbs to a growling climax before doing it all again. This one’s a contender for the best song on the album, if you need one pointed out to you, the other being ‘Suicide’ (below). It could have been a hit single, at least in my demented imagination, because it’s damn catchy and brilliantly constructed, despite being such a frantic heavy rocker that might have been a bit too overboard for most radio stations of the time.
‘Run Mister Run’ (3:53) rides a hard, funky bass riff and almost southern rock guitar, complete with stomping drums and cowbell, before a series of gut punches ensue for the chorus, and there’s a great jumping jam in the middle and end as well. They sound very much like an American band of the period here, but can’t put my finger on anyone it specifically reminds of. Maybe Mountain meets the James Gang?
‘Dearest Eloise’ (2:27) is a fairly soppy love song, soft all the way through, with wet strings and much flowery balladry -- maybe snack break time?
‘Do You Miss Me’ (6:26) runs at a jumpy pace, almost with a late 60’s American jazzy psych/pop/soul feel, with staggered delivery of the breathless vocals ... until nearly 2 minutes in, when the song switches into some heavy downer riffing before picking up speed again and galloping into a fast and hard boogie jam. After another run through the lyrics there’s a similar jam again (no downer riffing this time, sorry) but less hard rockin’ and maybe sounding more like Ten Years After for a while, until the end of the track.
‘Suicide’ (7:37) closes the album as its heaviest moment, weighty, (cock)rock-hard demon riffing sounding very much like Zior circa ‘Every Inch A Man’ – in other words, pretty damn cool! The lyrics are sung in mad, growling, howling desperation from the perspective of a black man who’s about to blow his own brains out with a shotgun. Not a party track, then. But apart from the downer subject matter, this mother rocks like a beast straight from the pits, swinging into an out of control (and teasingly brief) breakneck heavy-ass thrash metal middle section that is surely some of the truest (and best) metal recorded by anyone at this point in time. Even Sabbath didn’t get this hardcore until ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ and perhaps ‘Vol. 4’  but even then, never this fast and jugular. Much of the remainder of the track is over the top heavy structured jamming, which doesn’t again reach the peaks of that middle section headcrusher but still rocks with more sturdiness and enthusiasm than most folks can muster.

CONDITION: The Cover: The simulated black leather style cover with rich gold STRAY logo is collectibly "EX" (excellent) CLEAN all over...No seam splits, and overall no upgrade needed keeper collection gem.

The Vinyl: All clean and glossy clear "EX" (excellent to  M- ...looks and plays at the TOP LEVEL smooth and HARD ...clean TRANSATLANTIC labels too....  

      A cool addition to anyone's music library!

SEE: SELLERS OTher items for similar cool sounds for "head" people...

EFFICIENT/CAREFUL GRADING

All imperfections are noted both cover & record