Okay, that was kind of a rude joke. As most fans of this underappreciated, short-lived '70s hard rock band know, the group had to break up because singer Keith Relf electrocuted himself while playing guitar in his home in 1975. 'Tare a large shame too, because their one album is REALLY good!!! Keith started life in the mid-60s as the singer for the Yardbirds until they turned into a Dread Zeppelin tribute band, then he left that dying outfit to form Renaissance (which was probably not much to be proud of, although their debut album certainly has some very good art rock tunes on it) and finally he settled on Armageddon, a "supergroup" featuring guys who had played with Captain Beyond (!), Steamhammer (??), Johnny Winter (?!?) and Rod Stewart (SUCKS!).
The album is excellently good! The electric guitars are EXTREMELY loud in the mix, playing hard rock that's about as hard as, say, Aerosmith but seems harder because, again, the guitars are REALLY darned loud in the mix. The songs are all very long (only 5 tunes on the whole album!), but delightfully diverse, from the punk speed apocalyptic "Buzzard" to the "Love Hurts"-style shimmer balladry of "Silver Tightrope" to the proto-thrash "Paths And Planes And Future Gains" to the Funkmaster Jenkins "Last Stand Before" before closing with the crackly blues hoedown hybrid "Basking In The White Of The Midnight Sun." The songs are certainly repetitious, but not dull. The riffs are just too cool to seem repetitive! Very neat vocals from Mr. Relf too - his voice has gotten huskier since his dorky Yardbirds days and, mixed slightly below the screaming guitars on most of the album, he sounds like just another instrument.
A dulcimer perhaps! Or a tubafor!
What's a tubafor?
To go fuck yourself!
I don't think this album has been released on CD so I need you to buy a $400 turntable before you can hunt down the self-described "highly sophisticated, tangibly moody and breathlessly intense" album in a used record store and enjoy it. Thanks, cocksmith!
Damn. I wish I knew words like "tangibly moody." All I can ever think of to say is "kickass metal" or "Sit on my face, Senator Clinton, you two-dollar whore."
1) Rod Stewart should be judged by his GREAT late Sixties/early Seventies output, not by the horrors of the Eighties. FYI (although I suppose you KNOW it), Rod's first four albums are all classics, and will be treasured long after all the hardcore crap you've reviewed is forgotten (okay, that was a bit of an exaggeration - not having heard all those bands, I couldn't really say. But quit bashing Mr Stewart anyway).
2) Renaissance were one of art rock's best successes in the Seventies. How much Renaissance have you actually heard to make the conclusion that 'that was probably not much to be proud of'? Yes, their debut album is pretty good, but their REAL artistic triumph didn't come until Annie Haslam came on board and Relf was already out. Have you heard Prologue, Ashes Are Burning or Turn Of The Cards? So there. Get them first and make your judgement next.
Once again: don't turn your great reviews into flamebaits! They deserve reader comments that are more up to the point and more cool-headed than this one. But I can't resist sending it anyway. As for the Armageddon album, I ain't never heard it, but I'm looking for it. Keith Relf was indeed far more talented than is usually suspected.
Because of your godamn review page, I've discovered several more bands that I think are great which I probably never would have heard of if you didn't give them the time of day. You can add Armageddon to that list now as well. Know what that means??? It means that because of you, I'll eventually have to part with another 20 smackeroos to acquire an album I never would have had to get otherwise...DAMN YOU!
I'm a big fan of 70's hard rock, so judging by your description, it seemed that Armageddon was another band tailor-made for my tastes...for the last little while, I sort of kept an eye out for it, but wasn't too serious because nobody who wasn't already at least a teenager in 1975 seems to remember them, and online search engines yieled no results. I don't usually shop for vinyl either, so I didn't think I'd spot it anytime too soon. But lo and behold, I was at our huge HMV today casually perusing the CD shelves...I looked for the album in the rock/pop section, but of course they didn't have it stock...then a while later I spotted another band divider labelled "Armageddon" in the metal section. I just thought "hey! I guess there's another band called that...not like it's the most original name anyway!" and proceeded to flip through the discs in there...indeed, the albums were all by some really cheesy looking metal band, but then I come to one with four long haired, bearded dudes in jean bell bottoms sitting on the ground against a backdrop of the remnants of a destroyed city...the cover just screamed 1975 to me and I knew instantly that it had to be "that band I read about on the Prindster's site!". I guess they dropped it into the wrong section by accident, but hey, I instantly took it to the listening station for a spin...you're right again! Great album! Solid hard rock with great riffs and melodies...yup, the songs are a bit too long, but they still sound good. Nice history of the band in the liner notes too...one former band member said that Keith Relf likely would have survived the electric shock had his health been up to par...yeah, if you read between the lines that basically says that he was a drugged out reefer head...maybe he even purposely dipped the guitar into the tub to put himself out of his misery. Apparently the guy was pretty depressed, and the last thing he wanted to do before Armageddon was formed was play hard rock! From the pop blues of the Yardbirds and the art folk of Renaissance, he wanted to move in an even softer direction, but I guess he paired up with the wrong guys! Anyways, even if he had survived, I read that Armageddon had already dissolved a few months prior to his death, so in conclusion there never would have been another album, therefore making his death all the less important!
Checking out your site. Keith Relf did not die playing electric guitar in his bath tub. That's an erroneous myth with no truth to it. He died playing an ungrounded electric guitar in his basement studio. His son, Danny, found him the next morning, too late to be revived.
More info about Keith Relf, the Yardbirds and Armageddon at: http://www.furious.com/perfect/jimmypage.html
I haven't a clue whether or not it was ever re-released - but it ought to be!
Thanks so much.
I first heard of the Armageddon album as a result of my collecting Led Zeppelin related stuff. I got it in 1980, LP at some now defunct record shop in berkeley. It was and has been one of my favorite LPs. I think I played it, or a tape of it, and now the cd of it hundreds if not thousands of times. Really loud through headphones. Great drunk or on weed. My mother thought buzzard sounded like a swarm of ferocious bees on the wing. I tried to get all my high school bands to cover their songs, to no avail, they prefered to play Journey, Y&T and Night Ranger.
I have always been attracted to the dark end of the world thing going there in that album. As a somewhat depressed teenager, I could identify with the lonely themes. For a kid growing up during the 80s "Cold War", it was always a thought that the world could have ended at any moment as a result of nuclear war. My little world was such, that I kind of hoped it would happen, and this was my soundtrack. I read the lyric sheets up and down for meanings...Unfortunatly, around 1989, I realized that the world would not end, so I had to get a life...
From 1980 and for the next 15 years, I wondered what had become of Martin Pugh. He seemed, to have vanished from the face of the earth and had no other recordings. I wondered if he was a wizened street musician somewhere in a london subway....or had given up music altogether. Then came the internet, where I found a reference to him. In 1995, I gave him a call and travelled with a drummer to go jam with his current band then. Although He wasnt doing the metal thing any longer, he was no longer playing armageddon riffs, he sort of settled down with kids and was playing straight blues..we jammed for about two hours, his playing was more mature, but still on the money, it was a GOLDEN moment in my life. He was and probably still is a very friendly and approachable person.
We talked a little bit about the armaggedon band: keith relf was pretty much a sweet guy who could not control himself sometimes...he said that his live rehearsal tapes kick the studio versions, that the band was much better live than in LP. He tried to reform it in the early 80s, with another singer, but it didnt work out. I forgot the punch line, but he told me the story of how a local UK newspaper had run a comparison between Rod Stewart and Martin Quittendon, who played guitar with Pugh in the early 70s on the Rod Stewart album (both local from Martin Pugh's hometown)...something to the effect that Stewart had plastic surgery and the model wife, versus Quittendon and his aged true love, missing some teeth, hehe. Those interested in his recent activities can point to: www.7thorder.com although it seems that band is on hiatus right now...
He builds and plays his own guitars.......I asked him how he got my top favorite guitar sound on the album, particularly the grand finale wall of doom and sound crescendo at the end of Brother Ego, and before the Basking in the White of the Midnight Sun reprise: He said, it was nothing more than a trusty Fender Twin Reverb. No Marshall Stack or Tom Scholz Rockman, this was pre-Tom Scholz Rockman...
For all you Armageddon Martin Pugh googlers, this was for you....
If you ever find a tape or CD please let me know.
(12 minutes later)
Barns and Noble has a German import CD of the album I just ordered it my self along with Demonds and wizards.
Rock on
Now I wish the missing non-album tracks and Jeff Fenholt Armageddon tracks resurfaced
One of two out takes are now available on a bootleg called "KEITH RELF DEMOS 1970-74" which has recently surfaced on Ebay. It features a very rough and embreyonic version of "Silver Tightrope" and what appeares to be an unreleased armageddon instrumental. The Silver Tightrope song... I can tell for sure that it does not have Bobby Caldwell, but sounds only like Pugh, Cennamo and Relf. The instrumental however Might have caldwell, the drumming sounds very strong adn possibly him. The instrumental is very very very Led Zeppelin-ish, like something from Presence or Physical Graffiti. I am pretty sure it is Martin Pugh playing....There are No vocals. The CD has no notes on the origins of these tracks, which would be greatly appreciated and the seller had no ideas either. Everything else on this 14 track CD sounds really weird and is more of interest to Keith Relf fans than anyone else. But for those who have been waiting since 1975 for new Armageddon "product" 2006 is the year it finally came out!
Feel FREE to write me questions about this CD.
Bobby Caldwell absolutely blew me away with his drumming. His one-handed drum rolls were unreal! I loved Captain Beyond, and was psyched to find out that he had joined Armageddon. I still have a mint condition of the vinyl.
I feel honored to have seen them.
I remain,
A fan
Rock is now an old codger, listen to it when it was still young and wild................
Anyways, I enjoyed your review. Nice work!!!