You can argue over which band was the father of heavy metal, an
\nargument I won’t even try to touch on. But for my money, the group
\nthat gave birth to the whole hard rock presence on the radio in the
\n’70s was Montrose.<\/p>\n
A veteran of the Edgar Winter Group, Ronnie Montrose was a
\nwell-respected guitarist when he formed his own band in 1973. That
\nband, featuring future Heart drummer Denny Carmassi, bassist Bill
\nChurch, and a young vocalist named Sammy Hagar, epitomized melodic
\nhard rock, even if Montrose isn’t well remembered in 1998. Their
\n1973 debut effort
\nMontrose<\/i> is still an enjoyable album, even 25 years after
\nits release.<\/p>\n
The album was once best known for the track “Bad Motor Scooter,”
\nwhich demonstrated Hagar’s talents as a singer as well as
\nMontrose’s axe work. However, what is striking about Montrose’s
\nguitar playing for almost the entire album is that he does not
\nindulge himself in flashy solos. Instead, he crafts more controlled
\nsolos that meld with the songs and highlight the whole band, not
\njust himself. You have to admire Montrose for taking such a stance
\n– it turns out to help strengthen the songs that much more.<\/p>\n
That’s not to say that Montrose doesn’t take any time to put his
\nguitar through an aerobic workout. On their cover of “Good Rockin’
\nTonight,” which is more of a rock shuffle, Montrose finally lets
\nloose on his guitar. Again, instead of sounding self-indulgent, the
\nsolo almost seems to be called for on this piece, and it fits in
\nperfectly.<\/p>\n
Oh, sure, if you wanted to nit-pick about anything, you could
\nprobably point out some of the double-entendre lyrics (such as in
\n“Rock Candy,” which is a great track) and the themes of former
\nteenage angst (the modern-day aging tale “Make It Last”), or you
\ncould even point out the cosmic guitar noodlings on “Space Station
\n#5”. But you’d be stretching – the minor flaws on
\nMontrose<\/i> don’t distract from the whole work.<\/p>\n
In fact, the only real complaint I have with this album is the
\nsame complaint I have of many albums from this time period: it’s
\nfar too short!
\nMontrose<\/i> demonstrates that this lineup was one of the most
\nsolid rock outfits of its time, whose loose musical sound hid a
\ntight ensemble. A little more than eight songs clocking in at under
\n40 minutes would have been appreciated to hammer that point
\nhome.<\/p>\n
\nMontrose<\/i> is also noteworthy for the production work of Ted
\nTempleman (who co-produced the album with the band). Templeman
\nwould later make a name for himself through his work with another
\nCalifornia band – Van Halen. The overall sound of this album has a
\nheavier bass sound than I’d normally like – but one wonders if this
\nhas been corrected in later releases.<\/p>\n
\nMontrose<\/i>, unfortunately, is rarely heard on the radio
\nanymore. Why songs like “Rock Candy” and “Bad Motor Scooter”
\nhaven’t held up as well as songs from other groups at this time is
\nbeyond me; quite possibly the time is right for a re-discovery of
\nthis album. (Montrose, who has since gone on to a solo career
\nachieving cult status, recently reunited with the former members of
\nthe band for fun.) But one thing is clear:
\nMontrose<\/i> is an album that does not deserve to be forgotten
\nwith the passage of time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6790],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-39219","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-montrose","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39219"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}