Customer Reviews

Mogul Thrash

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Mogul Thrash were formed by lead vocalist/lead guitarist James Litherland upon his departure from Colloseum. Like that band they explore a bluesy brand of Prog, rooted in John Mayall's Bare Wires era music. Litherland is joined by a very young John Wetton on bass guitar and additional vocals, Bill Harrison drums and a great horn section of Micheal Rosen, Malclom Duncan and future Average White Band member saxophonist Roger Ball.

While the album has long been a collectors item for King Crimson fans due to Wetton's involvement, but it is far more significant than that. Mogul Thrash was one of the rare progressive bands that were extremely adept at the buesier elements of rock. R&B and art rock co-exist more comfortably here than anywhere else in 70's music, including Colloseum itself.

Both Litherland and Wetton are in spectacular form both instumentally and vocally, the keyboardless line-up of the band (aside from a brief cameo on piano by producer Brian Auger) provides the band an intersting pallette in order to arrange these songs, and allows Litherland far more room to stretch out on guitar than did Colloseum. Litherland remakes his classic "Elegy" from Colloseum, Wetton sings lead on the wonderful "St. Peter" the rest of compositions are also top notch.

I've been looking for this album for over 25 years. I'm not dissapointed in the least. Seek this album out if you are a Colloseum fan , King Crimson fan , or a fan of John Wetton's pre-sappy early days. It is well worth it at any price.

This is one of the finest blues-prog albums ever. Great songwriting, inspired playing. Led by the talented and adventurous James Litherland (of Colosseum) fame, who unfortunately seemed to have disappeared from the musicscene shortly after that. Fine songwriter, inventive guitarplayer, distinct vocalist.

And the young John Wetton showing considerable talent and playing some very Jack Bruce influenced lines, which of course isn't a bad place to start for a rising bass-star.

The horns by future Average White Band members are wellarranged, sounding very Colosseum-like, and the sax and trumpet solos really classy.

This album should be classic.

This is another one of those items; if you're one of the King Crimson faithful you probably want it for the archives. If you're not a big Crimson or John Wetton follower you'll probably want to pass on this fairly trivial 1970 release by these Brits.They are sort of a dime a dozen bluesey/jazzy hippy jam band, not quite prog. Kind of like an English version of Chicago or Blood Sweat And Tears (it's the horns, 2 saxes and a trumpet)only grungier, a little psychedelic, and more blues oriented, though not in the 1-4-5 scheme, just blues influenced. Lots of wah-wah guitar freakout and sort of gruff Claptonesque vocals from James Litherland (who also played with Wetton in Edwards Hand -very rare on RCA from the same year). Wetton provides a brief lead vocal on "St. Peter" and can be heard prominently in the backups. His bass playing, as usual, is outstanding and constantly moving throughout the pieces here.Of course he went on to play much better material than this, as all his fans know.