Deservedly included in Martin Popoff's "The Greatest One Hundred Metal Albums of The Seventies",
'Angel' (1975) and '
Helluva Band' (1976) have now been remastered, beautifully repackaged and reissued on BGO Records as a double CD set.
Any aficionado of seventies music who somehow managed to avoid
Angel's white spandex and massive hair will hear echoes of that decade ringing clearly and loudly through both '
Angel' and 'Helluva Band'. From Cream's blues rock to King Crimson's ostentatious prog to Procol Harum's elegant, hard edged epics.
That said,
'Angel' does ramble and is occasionally patchy, 'Rock & Roller's barroom boogie is average at best. But the highs are positively stratospheric. The wonderful 'Mariner' is clearly modelled on Procol Harum's 'Salty Dog', but the band pump up the pomp and Gregg
Giuffria mixes in some swing piano, hallmarking the song with the fast forming
Angel signature sound.
On 'Sunday Morning' and 'On&On' you can hear
Angel doing what trailblazing British bands like Cream, Traffic and ELO were doing at the time - distilling blues, pop, soul and rock'n'roll and alchemising it into something new if not entirely original. The latter track particularly is filled with alluring bass lines, head turning riffs, and gutsy - at times primal - lead axework set against dreamy keyboards, with Dimino's piercing, high toned vocal cutting through these inventive soundscapes songs like a knife through I Can't Believe It's Not Butter.
Although
'Helluva Band' gets off to an inauspicious start with the lumbering 'Feeling Right', it was clear that in the intervening year the band had fine tuned its sound to a satisfying pop metal hybrid.
By 1976, currents of musical ideas were criss crossing the Atlantic with increasing frequency. 'The Fortune' and 'Mirrors' illustrating this vividly. The first takes much from fledgling UK Progrock bands like ELP and Yes, the second's lyrical obsession with magic swords and battle cries confirms an affinity with up and coming British rock / metal bands like
Rainbow and Deep Purple.
The balladic 'Feelings' sees a plaintive, heart-tugging vocal from Dimino on a great pomp/pop/rock song reminiscent of the formative
Foreigner sound heard on that band's debut album. Yet, again proving they were just as capable of ground skimming lows as well as skyscraping highs, 'Dr.Ice' is laboured and clichéd, redeemed only by Meadows' scaled up axe solo.
Ultimately though, the sometimes awesome music on '
Angel' and 'Helluva Band' meant almost zero in terms of fame and fortune. Bad marketing and a ridiculous image saw to that. For those who know little of
Angel but the name and reputation, this double CD set is unarguably where to begin.
Ratings:
Angel 7.5/10
HB 8/10
Written by
Brian Tuesday, April 25, 2006
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