Deep Purple fired singer Rod Evans in 1969 because they thought he didn’t have the chops to sing hard rock, but the 1972 self-titled debut of CAPTAIN BEYOND, a band that also included former members of Iron Butterfly, proved that he could sing with the best of them.
As requested, here’s “Captain Beyond“, the band’s rocking debut album in its Japanese SHM-CD remastered version which really brings upfront the recording sonic dynamics. The bass lines now are present better than ever and guitar / drums are clearer all over the tracks.
Formed in 1971 by master musicians Larry ‘Rhino’ Reinhardt (guitar; ex-Iron Butterfly), Lee Dorman (bass; ex-Iron Butterfly), Bobby Caldwell (drums; ex-Johnny Winter) and Rod Evans (vocals; ex-Deep Purple), Captain Beyond forged an identity of sheer class with their sophisticated and soaring brand of progressive hard rock.
”Captain Beyond” boasts a conceptual flow of music, with riffs and songs combining seamlessly to form distinct suites of music yet it remains as a whole. ‘Dancing Madly Backwards (On a Sea of Air)’, ‘Raging River Of Fear’ and ‘Thousand Days Of Yesterdays (Time Since Come and Gone)’ are at the pinnacle of the 1970s hard rock genre.
This LP is pretty unique among guitar-driven hard rock albums in that it contains a wide range of influences, including Latin and jazz, often with various time signatures and a broad range of dynamics within the same song. Most of the album consists of three medleys of tightly arranged interconnected songs.
Songs flow directly into each other without any lag time between selections, a feature that is shared with other more progressive bands from the era.
”Captain Beyond” is considered to be a tour de force of the Classic Hard Rock tradition, an album brimming with a multitude of catchy riffs, astonishingly adept musicianship and a palpable sense of drama.
They don’t make albums like this anymore…
01 – Dancing Madly Backwards (On A Sea Of Air)
02 – Armworth
03 – Myopic Void
04 – Mesmerization Eclipse
05 – Raging River Of Fear
06 – Thousand Days Of Yesterday (Intro)
07 – Frozen Over
08 – Thousand Days Of Yesterday (Time Since Come And Gone)
09 – I Can’t Feel Nothing’ (Part I)
10 – As The Moon Speaks (To The Waves Of The Sea)
11 – Astral Lady
12 – As The Moon Speaks (Return)
13 – I Can’t Feel Nothin’ (Part II)
Rod Evans – lead vocals
Larry “Rhino” Reinhardt – guitars
Lee Dorman – bass, backing vocals, piano
Bobby Caldwell – drums, percussion, vibraphone, backing vocals, piano
CAPTAIN BEYOND – Captain Beyond ’72 [Japan SHM-CD remastered] , MP3+FLAC
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