MONTROSE HEAVY ROCK GUITAR STILL HAS THE REVOLUTIONARY PIONEERING EDGE
To many hardcore fans of 70`s American hard rock, this album is anything but a lost treasure.
But to the majority of casual rock fans who believe everything they hear on the radio from that era gets a decent amount of airplay, this is the album to prove the optimists wrong.
Drummer Denny Carmassi carved out a successful career with a.few other bands and musicians, including Heart and Montrose`s own hard rock moonlighting band, Gamma, after the predicted demise of Montrose in 1977, a band which never recovered from the absence of Hagar after he quit two years earlier.
A brilliant album for its time, hasn`t aged as well perhaps as Van Halen`s debut, another hard rock wonder which come out some five years later, but to me it`s up there in the heavy rock guitar top five of all time category.
Montrose No. 1 from 1973 is considered by many to be the first successful attempt to mix rock and metal together on American soil with a degree of commercial sensibility.
Montrose proved to be a mixed bag of artistic fortunes for the 4 members of the band:- Ronnie Montrose, the namesake guitarist who just a couple of years before had played a totally different muse on Van Morrison`s sterile `Tupelo Honey`, came out and cranked up his guitar like Pete Townsend on steroids for this incredibly lively groundbreaking heavy rock guitar debut.
Sammy Hagar, who would go on to replace Dave Roth in Van Halen by the mid 1980`s,
never sounded any better or more confident as a vocalist until just more recently when he become a member of the retro Chickenfoot than he did on this his first of only two studio Montrose outings.
Drummer Denny Carmassi carved out a successful career with a.few other bands and musicians, including Heart and Montrose`s own hard rock moonlighting band, Gamma, after the predicted demise of Montrose in 1977, a band which never recovered from the absence of Hagar after he quit two years earlier.
Bill Church, like so many bass guitarists who end up being forgotten quickly most of the time when their own star is outshone by a well known lead singer and lead guitarist, continued to have plenty of session work in
the years following Montrose but like Ronnie Montrose himself went into relative reclusion, except for the occasional blast from the past.
the years following Montrose but like Ronnie Montrose himself went into relative reclusion, except for the occasional blast from the past.
Montrose`s 1974 follow-up `Paper Money`, which did feature Hagar on vocals, wasn`t half bad but it just didn`t have anything
which the debut didn`t do better.
which the debut didn`t do better.
Montrose self titled only has 8 songs on it, which is good, because as much as it`s revolutionary and state of the art for its time, 12 songs of the same material might have made the album `bit too much of a good thing`.
You might say the one tiny criticism of the album is that Montrose was technically limited on guitar, even though very energetic and adventurous.
Hagar in fact wrote most of the songs on the
album, including the famous `Bad Motor Scooter`, a song which inspired the title of the Soundgarden album in the early 90`s
`Bad Motor Finger`.
album, including the famous `Bad Motor Scooter`, a song which inspired the title of the Soundgarden album in the early 90`s
`Bad Motor Finger`.
My favourite songs on here is the futuristic `Space Station #5`, which features on the clip above, and the blues heavy and rollicking `Rock Candy`, which is just no-nonsense 2-chord guitar rock showcasing one of the best intros on drums you will ever hear in your life.
Carmassi booked the attention of many a hard rock band just by being the one who
was responsible for this thunderously inspiring drumbeat.
It didn`t end there, the Bad Company influenced `Make It Last`and how could I forget, the opening gem `Rock The Nation`,
a song which sounds so much like the boogie rock of UFO.
a song which sounds so much like the boogie rock of UFO.
A brilliant album for its time, hasn`t aged as well perhaps as Van Halen`s debut, another hard rock wonder which come out some five years later, but to me it`s up there in the heavy rock guitar top five of all time category.
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