WARHORSE-RED SEA-

After been sacked by Deep Purple, Nick Simper joined Marsha Hunt´s backing band and later on Mr. Simper and guitarist Ged Peck reorganized into Warhorse when Hunt got pregnant. With Rick Wakeman on Keyboards and Ashley Holt on vocals the future looked Bright for these much talented musicians. The outfit signed to Vertigo and released their debut album but then Wakeman was replaced by Frank Wilson and lack of progress in sales and charts, guitarist Peck left after disagreement in which Music direction the band should take.

This release from 1972 got a nice groove and great production to it. The Hard/prog/proto rock heading is a great pleasure to listen to. The vocals are excellent and the interaction with the guitar is great. The rhythm section is solid as a rock. On the other side this record is way to late concerning material and style. Everything´s been Heard Before and the feeling that the outfit is trying to impersonate Deep Purple is eminent and I hope not, intentional, even if it sounds very suspicious. The feeling of a poor man´s Purple just won´t go away…To Bad..

The great benefit is the vocals that brings chills down your spine  and sorry to say, this could have been a much bigger success in an other band..marvelous shreiking!!

Whatabout the drummer, Mac Poole?? As in all British drummers, the competition brings out great delivery and terrific hit ratio amongs Contemporary musicians. Some of those fellows must draw the shorter straw and this is one of them. The striking abilities are all fine and the technical department got lot of knowledge but the drive isn´t there. It brings out the feeling that this is a show off recording with poor timing together with Mr. Simper on bass. Sorry, I am not convinced.

BUT, if you´re having a crave for Deep Purple influenced Hard/Prog/psych/Proto rock Music this is a good contender but be prepered for a recognizing feeling towards the songs. Original releases are expensive in the market but you can Always get a reissue and save some Money for that special album that someday will turn up….  🙂

VINYRATING/GRADE

-4-CHEESY-AVARAGE-