2x****
With a sound somewhere between The Stooges and Led Zeppelin, SLB channels the energy and some of the weaknesses of both. The original opener "Master Heartache" definitely falls to the Zeppelin side, but with a raw sound closer to Zep's BBC recordings. The song's badass Black Dog riff does a good job driving the song, while "Hard Rain Fallin" is like a super-frantic "Communication Breakdown". "Lady Of Fire" starts with a monster headbang riff like the best from The Stooges' Fun House, though from there it's flashy guitars and screams. It's the album's title song**** that eschews the shriller elements of the sound, achieving both the big bottom and spacier elements of stoner rock. At the other end, "Pumped Up" has an impressive hail of riffs, but where "Kingdom Come" shows off John Garner's vocal talents in the best light, "Pumped Up" is screamy and too fast to coalesce. But into this noisy whirlwind comes the harpsichord madrigal "Lake Isle of Innersfree", which is a bit of a novelty but well-sung and played.
The second album originally opened with "Man From Manhattan"****, really a two-in-one opus. The first half is psychedelic metal, but the second half is a masterfully-melodic instrumental that seems of the time, but might as well be from Flaming Lips Clouds Taste Metallic. The twin guitar riff of "Chicago Lives" has a more mid-70's sound, though predating Kiss or Thin Lizzy by quite a bit. "Woman Tamer" goes back to the Zeppelin / Stooges combination, but closing "Ceasar LXXI" has the early-prog theatricality that actually goes with the subject pretty well.
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