Armageddon (1975)

For a day where it was hard just to wake up, dialing up this album was a godsend. Those in need of high-energy 1970's hard rock need look no further, especially if you've gone through the major bands and are sifting through the vast array of lesser known acts. Although easily available through downloads now, this used to be a hard album to find at a reasonable price back in the day. Through dumb luck, a co-worker was able to secure a special order for the CD when for some reason a single copy managed to pop up in the ordering system back in the Borders days.

Most people will come across this album because of the singer, Keith Relf, best known as the frontman of the Yardbirds. Although he received more applause than Eric "Slowhand" Clapton on the Five Live Yardbirds album, Relf was not an ideal singer for a blues-rock band like the Yardbirds, whining where only singers howl. Recognizing he had more potential and interest in the growing folk-rock scene, he and drummer Jim McCarty represented the "quiet" faction of the latter-day Yardbirds, breaking away to form the mellow Together, then moving on to generally folky outfits like Renaissance and Illusion. Meanwhile, the "loud" faction of the Yardbirds, Jimmy Page and Chris Dreja, set the stage for Led Zeppelin. So imagine the shock when by 1975 Keith Relf was fronting a new band that was trying to do a heavy end-run around Zeppelin!

According to some of the sources I read, the band wasn't meant to be that heavy (why pick a name like Armageddon and supply a cover like that for a non-heavy band is beyond me), but with the introduction of Bobby Caldwell, a hard-hitting drummer from Iron Butterfly and Captain Beyond, things got kicked up to the next level. Guitarist Martin Pugh was no slouch himself, coming from early hard rock outfit Steamhammer. Between Pugh and Caldwell, the instruments are so loud that Relf is routinely being submerged. However, I think of this album as something you find because Keith Relf is on it, but listen to and appreciate more for the musicians playing with him.

Alas, this would be Keith Relf's final recorded work. Already a mess from drugs and ill health, he died the following year in a freak electrocution accident. Supposedly between his poor health and the even worse management and promotion of the band, Armageddon had folded months earlier.