Warner Bros. Presents
Montrose

Joe Fernbacher, Creem, 1/76


In two previous pythonic displays of rampaging Robitussin-inflamed teenage sweat, Ronnie Montrose has established himself as the pontifex of the daycare center for the children of the grave. During the course of these rapacious odes to rock�n�roll Walpurgisnacht, he laid down a viscid set of fiercely blocked power chords tethered by a technocratic sensuousness, whose shamelessness went beyond the mere definition of �heavy metal� music and into the realms of vitreousness. However, on this foray into sonicology, he doesn�t quite grab the crystal with as much gusto as he did before, even though he does manage to sustain a certain level of gritty dissonance expected of all tertiary katzenjammers: which simply means the album gets a B on the old Ripple-o-meter!!!

Dancing outa his rock abattoir, Ronnie runs roughshod through the void with a Deep Purple intoned piece of purulence laconically tagged �The Matriarch.� Emblematic of all cosmic indolence and frenetic lyrical imagism, this song spills over the edge of the world into the heebee-jeebie hallucinatory world of Jim Starlin�s �Warlock� Marvel-books. Creeping along close behind is a necropolis mass transit commercial �Black Train� whose underlying deathblow guitar larceny is highly reminiscent of Savoy Brown�s �Hellbound Train� and Black Sabbath�s classic hymn to uselessness, �Into the Void.� The two nostalgia nuggets on the disc are the Eddie Cochran popularized �Twenty Flight Rock,� in which Ronnie�s less complicated roots are shown to best advantage, and �Dancin� Feet� with its swirling guitar and infectious �For men only� backbeats. Overall this record satisfies, yet never really attains the promise of herpetophilia (a.k.a. snake-sex -- Ed.) found on the first Montrose LP and Paper Money.


(Thanks Joe. The first reader who can interpret and define every word in this review for us wins a free copy of the American-released reggae album of his or her choice. -- Ed.)

� Joe Fernbacher 1976
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