RARE 1971 PROMO = STRAY SUICIDE DARK Sabbath HEAVY DISTORTION PSYCH JERICHO

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RARE 1971 PROMO = STRAY ~ SUICIDE ~ DARK Sabbath HEAVY DISTORTION PSYCH JERICHO

USA - MERCURY WHITE LABEL PROMO -  SRM 1 611 

Vinyl= Vg+ 

Cover= Excellent 

ADVANCED RELEASE WHITE LABEL PROMOTIONAL... sought after (for good reason)1971 first pressing of the second, lethal hard-psych-rocking sizzler that steamrolls listeners with a pulverizing and at the same time an artistic onslaught. No doubt this album is a loud and tasteful CLASSIC.

The second STRAY album, ‘Suicide’, contains some of their best and heaviest songs (though perhaps not as raw and unleashed overall as on 1st ‘Stray’). Regardless, it’s still one hell of an album and most bands never get as good as this. To flesh out the sound palette a bit more, guitarist Del Bromham here also plays organ, electric piano, harpsichord and mellotron (though not at the same time of course), whilst singer Steve Gadd also plays bells and other percussion. ‘Suicide’ was recorded in Olympic Studios in 30 hours.

‘Son Of The Father’ (5:46) begins the album as a slow martial lament, with ghostly distant wind of very quiet drum washes (unless I’m just hearing things) and acoustic strumming, before kicking into a jubilant up-tempo fuzz riff verse/chorus bit and going through numerous highly charged metal riff changes tempered by washes of taped strings on the mellotron. All instrumental by now, the middle section is a fuzz bass and mellotron driven death dirge to a funeral procession that grows all discordant and clashing before grinding a death-defying groove into a sudden mellow respite, reprising the opening of the track and also the verse/chorus/riff/mellotron bit, charging to a classy ending. The lyrics, by the way, concern multiple generations of men going off to war and (often) death.
‘Nature’s Way’ (3:28) is a gutsy fuzzed heavy riff-rocker more reminiscent of the first Stray album, with balls the size of pumpkins and a complex middle section more akin to manic gusto Italian dudes Osage Tribe, though not quite as good. Wicked stuff all the same.
‘Where Do Our Children Belong’ (3:37) is one of the soft songs, but not really bad or anything, as with the occasional softer bits on the debut album. It’s all lazily paced acoustic guitar (or perhaps just quiet electric), nice harmonies, and totally appropriate bass and drums, picking up strength for a bit of a swell a minute before the end, but never breaking out into anything you would call rock.
‘Jericho’ (4:53) remedies that, with timely arrival of kinda dramatic, hard charged ever-changing riff sequences with urgent lyrics, sliding beyond belief into a tumbling dervish of chiselling guitar as the walls of Jericho “tumble to the groooouuuuund!” from the sheer power of loud music. It’s a complex, tight beast of a song that tears along at manic pace for ages without letting up except for an almost mediaeval atmospheric rock dirge in the middle that climbs to a growling climax before doing it all again. This one’s a contender for the best song on the album, if you need one pointed out to you, the other being ‘Suicide’ (below). It could have been a hit single, at least in my demented imagination, because it’s damn catchy and brilliantly constructed, despite being such a frantic heavy rocker that might have been a bit too overboard for most radio stations of the time. 
‘Run Mister Run’ (3:53) rides a hard, funky bass riff and almost southern rock guitar, complete with stomping drums and cowbell, before a series of gut punches ensue for the chorus, and there’s a great jumping jam in the middle and end as well. They sound very much like an American band of the period here, but can’t put my finger on anyone it specifically reminds of. Maybe Mountain meets the James Gang?
‘Dearest Eloise’ (2:27) is a fairly soppy love song, soft all the way through, with wet strings and much flowery balladry -- maybe snack break time?
‘Do You Miss Me’ (6:26) runs at a jumpy pace, almost with a late 60’s American jazzy psych/pop/soul feel, with staggered delivery of the breathless vocals ... until nearly 2 minutes in, when the song switches into some heavy downer riffing before picking up speed again and galloping into a fast and hard boogie jam. After another run through the lyrics there’s a similar jam again (no downer riffing this time, sorry) but less hard rockin’ and maybe sounding more like Ten Years After for a while, until the end of the track.
‘Suicide’ (7:37) closes the album as its heaviest moment, weighty, (cock)rock-hard demon riffing sounding very much like Zior circa ‘Every Inch A Man’ – in other words, pretty damn cool! The lyrics are sung in mad, growling, howling desperation from the perspective of a black man who’s about to blow his own brains out with a shotgun. Not a party track, then. But apart from the downer subject matter, this mother rocks like a beast straight from the pits, swinging into an out of control (and teasingly brief) breakneck heavy-ass thrash metal middle section that is surely some of the truest (and best) metal recorded by anyone at this point in time. Even Sabbath didn’t get this hardcore until ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ and perhaps ‘Vol. 4’ but even then, never this fast and jugular. Much of the remainder of the track is over the top heavy structured jamming, which doesn’t again reach the peaks of that middle section headcrusher but still rocks with more sturdiness and enthusiasm than most folks can muster.

COMMENTS AND TERMS

Occasionally a record will look beautiful but it is a dog when played. I can’t play every record and sometimes I do miss something in my visual comments. On the other hand the universally-accepted record grading system is comically flawed and leaves much to subjective interpretation. Since I sell mostly records from the ’60s and ‘70s (and to some degree from the ‘80s), I am dealing in records that are 40 to 50 years, with an unknown history of care. It is amazing how well many of these records sound today with the way they were taken care of but there is no way I can guarantee that my subjective grading will agree with yours! Since it is so ‘flaky’, don’t have a cow if we disagree.

I have outstanding feedback and that is not by chance. If you read my feedback, the repetitive themes are outstanding customer service, honest communication, and equitable resolution of issues.

One of my biggest gripes is eBay’s feedback. eBay has set up a very elaborate feedback system but unfortunately, eBay has not set out the parameters for giving feedback or DSR ratings. Each buyer just does whatever he/she wants and this leads to chaos but yet eBay uses feedback as its barometer on determining each seller’s future. This reduces some sellers to begging to do anything to avoid low marks and further empowers buyers to extract as much’s they can get from groveling sellers who seem terrified of a negative or a 1 or 2. Without eBay parameters on what constitutes successful seller performance, feedback means very little. 

The SUBJECTIVE GRADING I use is:

• SS = "Still Sealed" 
• NM = "Near Mint" 
• EX = "Excellent"
• VG+ = "Very Good Plus"
• VG = "Very Good" 
• VG- - "Very Good Minus" 
• G+ - "Good Plus" 
• F = "Fair" 
• P = "Poor" 
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