D,O... Fuckin' A! (AKA Dearly Belated)

BLOODROCK - BLOODROCK 2 (1970)
MANILLA ROAD - The Courts of Chaos (1990)

Ok, this is thee Halloween post that never was. My modem decided to be a fickle little bitch on me last week, and although I thought about dumping this fucker outright, the concept was too damn sound to jettison... so here goes: Fort Worth, Texas' Bloodrock was one o' them late 60's combos that straddled the line between patchouli-stankin' *ahem* Flower Power Phurry Phreakery and thee burgeoning thud that would evole into heavy metal. Bearing more than a slight resemblance to Deep Purple, complete with John Lordian Hammond Organ high in the mix, their eponymous 1969 debut LP was a fine example of slightly-delic heavy rock that only lacked a signature tune to set it apart from the thousands of other bands mining the same turf. A quagmire that would be remedied the following year on "Bloodrock 2."

"D.O.A." is the musical equivalent to grindhouse guinol like "Blood Feast" and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." I remember being a tyke camping with my hippie parents and their cadre of past-due flower children, and it seemed whenever I was stuffed into a tent for sleepytime, "D.O.A" would come on the radio for no other reason than to freak. Me. The. Fuck. Out. Underscored by eerie keys imitating ambulance sirens, it is thee tale of an aircrash victim recalling his final moments in lurid detail-- at least by 70's standards. In a way, it's an almost unknowable song-- the chorus states: "we were flying low... and hit something in the air." What the fuck?! Something? Yet it is this macabre mystique that makes it so endearing. Along with Manson and Altamont, it is yet another fork in the idealism of the 60's.

It is so damn good in fact, that Wichita, Kansas' ultimate purveyors of epic metal, Manilla Road would do a faithful cover 20 years later. Fittingly so, as "Courts of Chaos" is an odd entry in their catalog. To whit:

1. Randy Foxe, one of metal's top 2-3 drummers, plays guitar on it, replaced by a drum machine.
2. It is chock fulla keyboards, something inconceivable at the time.
3. It contains only one of their trademark 7-minute plus behemoths ("The Books of Skelos").

Despite what written down sounds like a recipe for disaster, "Courts" is still a solid ball of metal. The synths are a bit obtrusive at times, but never enough to diminish the power of Mark "The Shark" Shelton's impeccable riffing and hardy, untrained yowl. And, as I've tried to make clear--- you can never have enough versions of "D.O.A."

Both in comments.