Granicus
Granicus

Essential Hard Rock, 99% pure alcohol, and the same adrenaline coefficient! Wild screams and unleashed guitars in abundance... this, if summed up in a few words, is Granicus, the first (and only) album of a little-known band (of the same name)!

Granicus formed in the early '70s in Cleveland, Ohio (USA), and in 1973 signed a contract with RCA. The record is monstrous with a stylistic component that harks back to the early Led Zeppelin, played exquisitely, at times dreamlike, at times devastating with guitar riffs that seamlessly transition from a harder sound to a more relaxed one.

A powerful album that dispenses incredible energy throughout its listening, with the three guitars continuously intertwining and disentangling, slowing down in the melancholic pauses of "Twilight", "Prayer" and "Nightmare", with Woody Leffel’s powerful voice, at times reminiscent of David Surkamp (Pavlov's Dog), though less melodious and more intense!

Their resemblance to Led Zeppelin, which is often mentioned, doesn't detract from their unmistakable impetuous style, and although I condemn bands that rely too heavily on others, I don't at all think that this is the case here... precisely because the way they make music is particularly evocative, energetic, and violent like a high-voltage electric discharge that shakes every particle of the body and pummels it to the breaking point!

The cover suggests the beginning of the album, where it seems the sound comes from the horizon, where from a fireball at sunset, black specks are seen that as they approach and the tribal drums intensify, allow the silhouettes of the band members to be distinguished, along with the arrival of the commanding voice of the singer, awakening from nostalgic torpor.

A Hard Rock album with cojones, so to speak, which begins to master the heartbeat, making it pulse in your temples almost to the point of explosion, bringing you to a level of pure excitement due to the orgasm distilled in the tracks!

The themes of the album are naturally war (Vietnam) and sex, treated with a truly delightful rock-style poetry, which unfortunately loses value in some tracks, but as they say, "it's not what you say but how you say it"... and they say it in a frighteningly aggressive manner!

And it was precisely their wild style and great aggressiveness that didn't bring them the deserved success, due to a rather apathetic audience. They did some touring, and their pieces were played on radio stations, but their "failure" forced them to disband, leaving a second album in progress never published.

In conclusion, a disc of overwhelming power recommended to all Led Zeppelin lovers but more generally for fans of pure and raw Hard Rock, an album not to be missed! To be shot like a morning coffee dose!

Members of the band were:

·         Woody Leffel (vocals and guitar)

·         Joe Battaglia (Drums)

·         Dale Bedford (bass)

·         Al Pinelli (guitar)

·         Wayne Anderson (guitar)