Steamhammer - Steamhammer (Reflection) (1969)

Steamhammer's debut was released at a time when the British blues-rock wave was finally starting to get some steam (hence the name, eh?) - Cream had dissolved, but a new tide of bands were coming in its place, and this time, not just boring purists like the original Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac or something like that, but actually daring, brave guys who weren't afraid to let their hair down, make their sound more aggressive and sharp, on one hand, and somewhat more experimental and adventurous, on the other. Heck, this is when Led Zeppelin made their debut, after all, but there were also gazillions of 'simpler' bluesy outfits, like Ten Years After or Taste, for instance, and Steamhammer's self-titled debut should be regarded in that category, and out of that category, it's definitely one of the better albums of the epoch.
At this point, the band wasn't yet taking too many chances. The nine main tunes on here are all bluesy, ranging from pure blues to mid-tempo blues-rock. But, of course, it's not the exact melodies that count when we're speaking blues, it's the attitude and the atmosphere. And these guys had it wired. All the five members were experienced and well-trained musicians by that point, and the rhythm section rolls along with enough fire to redeem its existence; the main stars of the album, though, are the vocals guy and the main guitar guys. Kieran White is a really wonderful vocalist, with a powerful baritone that blows away nearly all competition, unless you count extreme cases like Rod Stewart... one thing that has always struck me about guys like Alvin Lee and Rory Gallagher was the absolute technical weakness of their vocals - I never had a real problem with that, as both of them had the youthful energy, sincerity, and sheer performing power to compensate for lack of a wide range or ability to always stay on key, but still, occasionally this kind of stuff kinda rubbed me in the wrong way. Kieran White, on the other hand, sings just perfectly, maybe even too perfectly for a blues guy, but then again, he does have the necessary rawness, so that's all right by me.
And the guitarists are good. I'm not sure what parts are played by Martin Quittenton and what is played by Martin Pugh on here, but just about everything about their guitars sends nice vibes up my alley: a serious variety of guitar tones (sometimes a bit too clean, but you get used to that), cool unnerving riffage when it's necessary, and fluent, emotional, soaring solos played with dexterity that might be somewhat below the level of, say, Clapton, but which is definitely high above, say, Tony Iommi (at least the early Seventies Iommi).
So the Achilles' heel, of course, is the songwriting. Basic blues songs and even more basic blues-rockers don't really make my day when there's nothing to dilute them with, and even if only two of the songs are direct covers (a B. B. King and an Eddie Boyd tune), none of the others seem to betray any kind of individuality through the melodies. Thus, the record is essentially only saved by the guys' inventiveness - you'll meet a lot of wonderfully sounding passages on here that weren't all that common on rock records in the late Sixties. For instance, my favourite number, the scorching rocker 'She Is The Fire', prefers to - for no obvious reason - begin with a short brass introduction, then contrasts Kieran's ominous vocals with a creepy wah-wah rhythm in the background and then uses the volume increasing trick to good effect when the main riff of the song almost seems to explode in your ears after the first verse. And then there's the psychedelic guitar duel which seems to be taking place in some mysterious hidden underground caves, particularly when you're in headphones.
'Even The Clock', on the other hand, doesn't just employ the same guitar battle style, but actually complements it with moody flute soloing a la Jethro Tull. And 'Down The Highway' has this weird three-note riff that repeats for several times at the end of each verse, as if saying to you: 'in case you didn't know it, I'm the hook and I wanna be forcefully introduced to you!'. 'On Your Road' is a short folksy acoustic ballad for a change, but even then it features a weird quasi-San Franciscan electri guitar tone when it comes to the solo. And even the lengthy 'blues-de-luxe' style workout (epithet stolen from Jeff Beck's Truth, of course) 'Twenty Four Hours', while it has nothing original or even particularly memorable about it, is just tasty to listen to, what with all the atmospheric guitar/harmonica solos and stuff. Really, that's good stuff out there, with a big "G", although it doesn't even approach great. It's obvious that this album couldn't have hit much popularity in the light of all the Led Zep trickery, but maybe it didn't deserve such oblivion...
Oh, one thing I forgot to mention is 'Water', the little two-part instrumental dirge that opens and closes the album - the second part of it, with the depressive and lamenting guitar, has almost reminded me of Can's 'Deadlock', if that means anything to you: the same broken-hearted end-of-the-world-ish tone that makes an unstable person wanna kill himself. That's really weird, as I don't believe the Can tune was already written by that point, nor do I believe the German band ever heard Steamhammer... but maybe that's just one good indication of how the rock business is so huge that similar ideas keep popping out from different heads all the time. Ah, talk about originality...
(starling.rinet.ru/music/steam.htm)