Who Will Save the World?

The final installment in the Groundhogs' trio of early '70s masterpieces--also including 1970's THANK CHRIST FOR THE BOMB and 1971's SPLIT--WHO WILL SAVE THE WORLD features eight epic tracks, so stripped-to-the-bone and brutal they are barely definable as blues. With the classic line-up of the band recording for the last time (drummer Ken Pestelnik departed after this album's release), the album has some of the heaviest cuts in their oeuvre: "Earth is Not Room Enough" finds a riffy groove dissolving into mellotron-driven confusion; "Death of the Sun" foregrounds frantically layered piano and guitar arpeggios; and the album's closer, "The Grey Maze," highlights the devastating guitar work that made Tony McPhee a British legend. Hearing the latter's fret heroics, one would be hard pressed to disagree with the album's premise (bolstered by the artwork of D.C. Comics illustrator Neal Adams) that the Mighty Groundhogs were indeed here to save the world.