4.0 out of 5 stars
Psychedelia & prog, 1969, August 12, 2011
This review is from: Valhalla (Audio CD)
"Valhalla" lived fast and died young, after releasing sole album for United Artists in 1969. That was organ and guitar dominated act, which played heavy acid (or psychedelic) blues, often venturing into hard rock and flirting with prog and jazz. Self-penned material (composed mainly by Mark Mangold - piano, organ, vocals) shows very promissing band still under formation, but similarities (or influences) are far too many, ranging from early Deep Purple to The Doors (at least few tunes), with bass riffs of Grand Funk and elements borrowed from Cream. On top of everything the debut album was seriously damaged (if not ruined) by the bad taste of its producers, who brought exaggeratedly reach orchestrations (which simply smashed Doors-inspired simple piano theme and turned it into a vaudeville) - the ambitions were there, but the talent of George Martin - not.
Aesthetically, the band pre-dated pagan metal (musically it is limited to the opening song only, but artwork is excellent) - at least, to a point.
The weak spot are vocals - although Vernon Joynson describes them as "powerful", on "Hard Times" and "Conceit" they are flat and unispiring, and on "Ladies In Waiting" the singing is simply off-tune (which should obvious even for unrtained ear).
Originally, the band was one of the very few "heavy" acts from Long Island, NY (don't miss excellent "Swampgas"), and, apart from Mark Mangold, there were Dont Krantz (guitar & bass), Rich Ambrose (bass), Eddie Livingstone (drums), Bob Huling (vocals & percussion).
Regretfully "Valhalla" didn't get a chance to evolve into an accomplished and mature band.
It was re-issued twice on CD - by Free (in 2000) and bootlegged by Radioactive in 2007 (with dubious sound).
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