The band's best studio album, coming off of the success of
Space Ritual. The group's
rock roots are juxtaposed effectively with the swelling synthesizer flourishes and pretentious song ideas, creating the quintessential guitar-oriented
space rock record -- the highlight was the live recording of
"You'd Better Believe It," with its crunchy guitars, but nobody minded keyboardman
Simon House's languid, synthesizer-laden
"Hall of the Mountain Grill" (especially as it was followed by the
Lemmy-sung
"Lost Johnny," a great all-out rocker). The sound, especially the mix of ballsy high-volume guitar playing and soaring electronic keyboards (
"The Psychedelic Warlords," "D-Rider"), would later get co-opted by outfits such as
Blue Oeyster Cult (
"Don't Fear the Reaper") and
Kansas. Overall, this is the sound and imagery that the punkier kids and druggies who went to shows like
Laserium were looking for, and if the producers of
Laserium had devised something hooked around this record, it could have run 20 years or better. [The 2001 British reissue includes several bonus tracks:
"Paradox," the "Single Version Edit" of
"You'd Better Believe It," the "Single Version" of
"Pyschedelic Warlords (Disappear in Smoke)," the "Remix Single Edit" of
"Paradox," and
"It's So Easy."] ~ Bruce Eder
