BEDLAM CHR 1048 (-73) UK

                                                       

 British hard rock band formed 1972 as a kind of supergroup with drummer Cozy Powell (earlier with Jeff Beck), bassist Dennis Ball (who'd played with Long John Baldry), singer Frank Aiello (Truth) and guitarist Dave Ball (Procol Harum). They broke up 1974 and this became their only original album, produced by Felix Pappalardi (Mountain), who also played keyboards on most of the tracks. To me much of it sounds close to Mountain with a touch of Cream, no surprise with Pappalardi in charge. Very well played and produced with top audio and everything penned by the band. I'm not totally in love with all of it, but a couple of the cuts hit me just right - like "Seven Long Years" overflowing with good guitars, the heavy "The Beast" and the very raw "Set Me Free". Even if to my taste a little uneven it's still a good exemple of early hard rock when it was really hard, before synths and refined studio equipments took over the genre. As an analog recording with classic rock instruments it hits your ears instead of caressing them in some slimy way.  Issued and reissued pretty much all over the world on vinyl and CD through the years, also cassette and 8-track. UK 1998 CD on Zoom Club Records (ZCRCD 8). Premiere UK had label as shown here in a glossy cover, some with an insert sadly missing with this copy.