The Ten Commandments＜限定盤＞

Dave Titley(g/vo)、A.B. Benson(organ/vo)、John Cook(dr)、Dave Chriss(b)により結成された幻の英国産プログレッシブ・ロックバンド、英Youngbloodから発売された'71年唯一作が、Bonfire Recordsから500枚数量限定の180g重量盤アナログで'22年再発!

オリジナルは超激レア盤として有名な、タイトル通り旧約聖書を題材とするトータル・コンセプト制作。要所に効果的なオーケストラ・アレンジを配しつつ、重々しいオルガンサウンドを中心としたドラマティックな展開/構成が光る、マイナー・レーベルからの発表や時代性を考慮しても卓越した内容に仕上がった秀作です!!

This record was something of an enigma -- apparently it never got distributed very widely even in England, where it was recorded and released, and was never officially issued in the United States. The band calls to mind early Deep Purple (pre-Machine Head) in their style, while the record resembles the early progressive efforts of the Moody Blues. This is a concept album built around the Ten Commandments, with each of the ten songs corresponding to a commandment -- it seems like a stretch today, in terms of an effort at reaching a mass audience, but one must remember that 1970 was the era of the original Jesus Christ Superstar album. Salamander take the concept and run with it most effectively, backed by some occasional orchestral accompaniment, but mostly the quartet pounding away, highly melodic and sometimes a bit heavy but always interesting. Dave Titley's guitar work isn't in Ritchie Blackmore's league, but his voice is powerful and expressive, and it's surprising that we haven't heard more from him, and A.B. Benson's keyboard work was of at least the same caliber as Rick van der Linden of Ekseption, or even Jon Lord of this period, and he should have done more that would have been heard. ~ Bruce Eder