Looked at now as a futile, belated attempt to grab at the brass ring, Armageddon’s legacy was two live performances and this one album. It’s hard to even call them a super group, since Keith Relf was the only one of the bunch to have experienced commercial success, and that was with the Yardbirds some 8-10 years before Armageddon cut their lone effort. Drummer Bobby Caldwell was known for his stint with American space rockers Captain Beyond, while Martin Pugh and Louis Cennamo had played together in the rather non-descript British blues rock outfit Steamhammer; Cennamo also had a connection to Relf through his progressive rock project Renaissance. Add to the confusion the fact that there was yet another band under the Armageddon name – from Los Angeles – which had released an LP back in the late 60’s, and you can understand why this particular album might get lost in the shuffle. Getting back to this Armageddon, Relf and crew’s aim was to make a loud splash in the progressive rock pool. The only problem with that was, by 1975, it was a pool that was getting smaller and smaller. The five tracks curated here are defiantly not commercial, with one big-time winner, followed by four tracks which range from close-but-no-cigar to near-head-scratching in nature. “Buzzard”, of course, is the winner winner chicken dinner. Well, sort of. Instrumentally, the chops are undeniable, as from the rhythm section to the guitar playing to even Relf’s harmonica they are able to convey the swoops and moves of a buzzard to a tee. It’s only when Relf sings when the weak point of the track is exposed. Apparently, he was not in the best of health by this point in his life, although, for the rest of the record, his voice is not as much of a hindrance. It’s just that on such a rush of an exercise like “Buzzard” it really needed a powerhouse to keep up with the rest of the band, and Relf was not it. But the group never really dares to hit those crazy, on-the-edge notes until the last track on the album, “Basking in the White of the Midnight Sun”, which is a real free-for-all of a few different passages that don’t go together that the group forces to go together…and somehow works out OK in the end. In between, there is a nice, tender, yet unresolved same-tone ballad “Silver Tightrope”, a rather messy go-nowhere rocker (“Paths and Planes and Future Gains”), and another unresolved yet big and meaty groove that is fun to jam to (“Last Stand Before”). It’s difficult to call this a real “lost gem” other than “Buzzard” and even then you can nitpick on Relf’s voice here and there. But, if you are looking for big, heavy, 80’s and 90’s-ish kind of grooves and a hard/heavy band just not giving a you-know-what for a little over 40 minutes then this is a good bet or at least a decent time waster.
Comments