May Blitz
May Blitz

It's 1970, Black Sabbath gives birth to their first self-titled album, Deep Purple releases In Rock, Led Zeppelin III, so it's normal for excellent works like May Blitz to be sidelined and forgotten in the face of such musical and creative fervor.
The band was founded in the late '60s by Tony Newman, a rather illustrious drummer who was also part of the Jeff Beck Group. He contacted two other musicians, James Black and Reid Hudson, and in no time they assumed the name May Blitz and signed a contract with the record label Vertigo in 1970.
It's paradoxical to think that their first album is also the penultimate, indeed after a fleeting listen to the work, one is positively amazed by the instrumental and compositional abilities showcased, in sounds sometimes extremely bluesy, other times harder and more defined, namely Hard-Rock. This is manifested in the first track "Smoking The Day Away" corroded by the use of long guitar jams, at times distorted and evoking Blues, at other times more nostalgic, reflective, accompanied almost equally by Voice and Drums, it results in a versatile, epic, rich in inspiration piece, oozed in the solos of the central part but especially in the sung sections. A piece that, in my opinion, should have remained in the annals, but as I pointed out earlier the historical period didn't allow for its dissemination to the general public.
This trend continues with track 2"I Don't Know", initially, one can enjoy two minutes of authentic Rock-Blues followed by long instrumental rides highlighting the excellent skills of Tony Newman and the Guitarist James Black who is also one of the band's two vocalists. In the last minute, the jams fade to make way for the vocals. The judgment for this track is almost similar to the previous one, the instrumental parts are impeccable, and the vocal/melody combination is engaging.
For "Dreaming", I will make a separate discussion as stylistically it diverges from the rest of the work. The beginning is indeed dreamy, sweet, whispered, paced, but the background is restless and unstable, just like a dream disturbed by the mind's ghosts ready to turn into a nightmare. Suddenly the sounds become confused, noisy, fast, the drums ignite, but, the factor that most renders the change is the very harsh voice, breaking into terrifying screams that seem to prelude to the anger of a generation to come...Then the sleep becomes calm and apart from some jolts, Morpheus will definitively welcome us into his sweet arms. Pieces of this magnitude can only be heard, perceived with ears and mind to deeply recognize their stature. Black and Hudson's voices are extraordinary.
Track number 4 "Squeet" can be easily simplified into wild and phantasmagoric guitar solos, and in sung parts, blues, but restless and torn by continuous vocal shifts.
Pause, one dreams again. "Tomorrow May Come" is sustained by a faint and light voice, supported at times by Drums but especially by Tony Newman's hypnotic Vibraphone.
And it is this latter that is the protagonist of "Fire Queen", author in the initial part of an intriguing tribal segment, but on the shields throughout the track thanks to sudden, rapid, and rhythmic performances, the track however reaches its zenith in the screamed, disjointed sections of the Black/Hudson duo, overshadowed by the guitar's resolve in the final Refrain. Fast, wild, and intense sound, massive riffs, all ingredients leading towards Hard Rock, and indeed, in my view, it's the composition that most closely approaches this style.
It concludes with "Virgin Waters" and it is ecstasy once more. Opened by the sound of sea waves, the song is conducted by Newman in the whispered and gentle central part, and concluded again by the poetic rustle of the sea.

An astonishing record in many of its aspects, and to think it sold only a few thousand copies...