Sinister Soldiers (1978)
There are few albums that present better, on first glance, than Sorcery's debut. A double LP on the custom pressing label Century. Cool titles, some long songs, the moniker and album title. And then that cover - I mean, seriously, Knights Templar? In 1978? This is going to be the best 70s hard rock / early metal album of all time.
While it's not as misrepresentative as Molly Hatchet's covers, one is not likely to walk away stating that, yea, now this is the greatest hard rock album of the 70s. Once you get past the imagery and the unfettered imagination, it's time to take in what the album gives us. It's worth noting that even though the album was originally released as a 2xLP set, it's only about 51 minutes long, so they could have easily chopped a couple of tracks off for a decent sounding LP (though the production isn't so great to begin with).
The first two tracks are solid hard rock fare, very similar to what we'd expect to hear from a band residing in the great Midwest. A3 is a fascinating curveball, an instrumental somewhere between Rush and late 60s psychedelia. It's also my favorite of the set. The longest track, coming in at over 12 minutes, takes up all of Side 2. It's mostly a doomy ballad with lengthy guitar solos. Oddly, the guitar tone and the way that Sorcery goes about making music, reminds me of Saxon's debut, complete with the imagery. C1 returns back to the straightforward hard rock of the openers. C2 is where Sorcery moves into proto-metal territory. It's also the second longest track and has similarity to side B considering the long and loud guitar solos that make up most of the song. All three tracks of the final side are on the heavier side of the hard rock spectrum.
This is one of those albums that had I stumbled upon the LPs in a record store back in the 80s or 90s for a few bucks, I'd treasure it until the end. But as just another reissue CD in the collection, it doesn't go to the next level. There are many better 70s hard rock albums. Seems that Sorcery may have had a progressive slant to them, but they didn't allow that side to come out on Sinister Soldiers.
1995 Monster (CD). Acquired in 1999.
1999; 8/4/13; 11/15/26 (review)
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