ATOMIC ROOSTER - ''REBEL WITH A CLAUSE : THE FIRST 10 EXPLOSIVE YEARS''

ATOMIC ROOSTER
''REBEL WITH A CLAUSE : THE FIRST 10 EXPLOSIVE YEARS''
NOVEMBER 14 2005
125:05

DISC ONE: "The First 10 Explosive Years"
1. Sleeping For Years (5:27)
2. Seven Streets (6:42)
3. I Can't Take No More (3:32)
4. Taken You Over (4:50)
5. Lost In Space (5:52)
6. Play It Again (3:11)
7. Devil's Answer (live) (4:10)
8. rebel With A Clause (2:57)
9. Night Living (3:38)
10. Death Walks Behind You (7:20)
11. It's So Unkind (4:06)
12. When You Go To Bed (3:43)
13. Head In The Sky (5:38)
14. Break The Ice (4:59)
15. Play The Game (4:46)
16. Tomorrow Night (live) (4:52)
Total Time: 75:50

DISC TWO: "Headline News"
1.Hold Your Fire (4:50)
2. Headline News (5:17)
3. Taking A Chance (3:10)
4. Metal Minds (4:24)
5. Land Of Freedom (3:49)
6. Machine (5:26)
7. Dance Of Death (4:30)
8. Carnival (4:36)
9. Time (6:32)
10. Future Shock (4:25)
11. Medley: Watching Out/ Reaching Out (5:11)
Total Time: 52:15

REVIEWS
By PROGARCHIVES
DISC ONE
The First 10 Explosive Years (1999): In 1970 guitarist and vocalist John DuCann joined Atomic Rooster and he immediately went on tour with the band. When bass player Graham left the band keyboardist Crane refused to replace him and started playing bass lines on the lower part of Hammond organ. To compensate the fact that he couldn't use his left hand to press down chords on the lower manual he created a 'burning' style of playing, often in furious interplay with DuCann. When Carl Palmer left Atomic Rooster to join Keith Emerson and Greg Lake left for supergroup ELP Rick Parnell shortly replaced him. John and Vincent were not satisfied about his skills and had to replace him by Paul Hammond, an extremely good drummer from a local band called Farm. Soon the trio started to develop their influential 'heavy progressive' sound: hard edged progressive music with a swirling Hammond B3 organ and fiery guitarplay. The interplay between John's guitar and Vince organ is hot and often furious. In fact this powerful sound was the precursor to 'progressive metal', many metal- acts from The Eighties pointed at Atomic Rooster as their main source. In '89 it was all over for Atomic Rooster because of Crane's tragical death, he commited suicide. On this great compilation (my favorite Atomic Rooster CD) you will be blown away by the dynamic sound, loaded with short but magnificent soli on guitar and organ, energetic drums and powerful vocals.
DISC TWO
Headline News (1983): After some years in hibernation, the year 1980 saw Vincent Crane collaborate once again with old cohort Arthur Brown and recording a fine album with 'Faster Than The Speed of Light' (in conjunction with German electronic wizzard Klaus Schulze). After this project, Crane decided on re-kindling the Atomic Rooster flame and called upon former guitarist John DuCann and a session drummer and cut a rather 'metal' sounding 'come-back' album which was, at least, partially successful. After some 12 inch E.P's, and some minor shifts in line-up (with yet another Rooster veteran, drummer Paul Hammond re-joining the fold) they cut this album. DuCann had left by this time, and guitar duties were handled by D. Gilmour and Bernie Torme (from Ian Gillan's solo band) and the result was an uneasy blend of typically Rooster- ish (or rather Crane-ish) keyboard heavy prog-flavoured arrangements, and some stabs at blatant commercialism. Yeah, almost no-one could escape the tragic developments of 80's plasticiary - the somewhat cold, synthetic sounding production with 'gated' drums and synth-bass - well, at least after the 1st album, Crane always handled the bass with his Hammond, which sounded mightier than the synth....Anyways, the good songs : 'Hold Your Fire' starts out with some volume swells (courtesy of Gilmour) and a driving synth-based rhythm, the song is pretty good, with the inimitable Gilmour pouring more soul into his solo than, say, anything with a lot of soul. Title-Track 'Headline News' is an intense piece with jerky rhythms and odd time sigs, great organ and clavinet playing - the song itself has a real 'epic' and urgent feel to it. 'Metal Minds' is one of those 'cold' sounding minor-key things Vincent loved to dabble in. Gilmour again adding his magic touch on his (speculation) red Strat he was often seen with during this time (what a tone !!!). Machine' again features some jolting rhythms and is the song closest to their classic sound. 'Dance Of Death' (the title says it all, really) is an interesting track with an almost tribal sounding percussion bit somewhere in the middle. Some 'take-it' or 'leave-it' moments with 'Time', and some insipid pop tunes with predictable, cheezy melodies - 'Taking a Chance', 'Land of Freedom' and 'Carnival'.

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