Creative Rock – Gorilla

Fantastic album marred only by a somewhat shrill, almost late '60s garage psych production. Interestingly, the horns are never over the top but the guitar can burn your ears off at times. Drums are thin and bass cuts through in the lower mids without much bottom. Just kind of a wonky sounding record but who cares!?

This is a weird stew of Farlowe-era Colosseum meets If, Blood Sweat and Tears and Jethro Tull in a darker, doomier presentation. Mind-numbing acid guitar solos from space drop in and shatter everything in sight. Vocals from Rainer Erbel are outstanding. Powerful, soulful and fire-hot! He clearly also sang on at least the end of the "Dies Irae" single by Golgatha (check it starting at 2:35), though as of this writing is not credited as having done so here on Discogs.

One heck of a record!

These are one of the early German heavy bands, but they were a bit different as they incorporated elements of jazz and blues. The outcome is like a. cross between Birth Control ('70-75) and Emergency only with more power.You can see why they picked their name even on Natron, the first cut, with its jazzy format, acid lyrics and pure power. Possibly 2 of the best tracks are Hear What I'm Talking - a heavily percussive track with freaky guitar solos (similarities here to Gum Guru, Eloy, Nine Days Wonder) and Blind People, which is the most powerful cut on the album. It has excellent sax and gliss/echoed guitar work.
by Alan & Steve Freeman, first published in Face Out ca. 1978-79