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The Groundhogs-SPLIT CD (EMI, EU)

Steering away from their blues roots and heading on even further into that vague "rubric" (copyright 1984 Robert Christgau) of progressive rock, the Groundhogs seem to have hit upon a nice li'l niche of their own with SPLIT. Mixing early-seventies heavy metal and whatever was left of the English r&b scene at the time, SPLIT does make for a pleasant romp into the guitar-based shenanigans that were overwhelming the cast and crew of ZIGZAG at the time and come to think of it, this 'un was even considered pretty hot snat for more than a few mid-Amerigan teenage bunsnitches, George Brigman included. A few tried and trues out there might feel like doing a bitta wincing at various definitely un-punk smart guitar moves (I don't), but then again when you're right and ready to settle back into heavy metal bliss T. S. and crew all of a sudden switch gears and head back to their roots for the album closer entitled (what else but) "Groundhog". With groups like the Groundhogs, Can, Amon Duul II and later on Dr. Feelgood and the Stranglers, it's not hard to fathom why Liberty/United Artists was one of the more hotcha major labels in operation even if we hadda pay import prices to hear some of it!

(And true, this is yet another one of those reviews o' mine which really doesn't say very much about the music at hand, but then again given how important SPLIT remains in the canon of heavy metal this disque's natural credibility and overall accomplishment is already known to you readers so why beat any more dead horses to the point where the resultant mess is ready to be sold at the butcher shop as ground round? Besides, I've done that already more'n a few times with my very own hagiographic praise of many a band, and frankly my sense of rabid fandom tends to make even me nauseous at times!)