Virus' debut is one of those albums that perfectly defines the Krautrock genre as we know it today. It's a mix of psychedelic, hard rock, and that secret ingredient, one that is only whispered about in the dark halls of the murky and mysterious underground. An underground that is hard to describe, but you know you're there when you hear it. And when you hear it, you say "that's Krautrock!". Sure, the title track includes The Rolling Stones' 'Paint it Black', a song that I might add, would itself be a blueprint for all things European psychedelic underground with its Eastern jam cycle motif. If you're looking for loud acid guitar, flute, and jamming organ with tribal drumming, plus stoned vocals - and you haven't heard Virus' Revelation - then let me be the first to tell you that you have come to the right place. And the album gets freakier as it goes, so that by the time you get to 'Hungry Looser' (sic - and finally spelled right on the GoD CD), and especially 'Nur noch Zwei Lichtjahre' with its foreboding German narration, then you know you have found ground zero for the entire zeitgeist. This isn't the cosmic Krautrock wing of Ash Ra Tempel or Guru Guru, but if you're looking for the hard rock portion of the Krautrock house, then you found it here. Congratulations on your new baby.
The two tracks appended onto the later CD's, from the 1970 45 single, are also worthy and similar in style.
Ownership: LP: 1971 BASF. Single sleeve. Acquired via a recent trade from a friend in Japan (2021).
CD: 2013 Garden of Delights. Purchased upon release, which should be the end state on that front. As usual for GoD, it comes with a full history, photos, and two bonus tracks from a single.
This album was pretty legendary by the time the first CD appeared on the market (Second Battle), and so I nabbed one as soon as it was released (1991). In addition to that, I also picked up the 1995 version on LP (also Second Battle). Then sold it... bought it again years later... sold it again. Ha, OK, so I can be a mess sometimes.
1/24/14 (new entry); 5/1/21 (update)
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