GRANICUS transcends the genre of early ‘70s progressive hard rock, they will thrill somebodyhungry for a killer in that department but are so creatively explosive anybody into any brand ofhard rock from classic, metal, punk, prog up intothe wild beyond will get caught up in theband’s whirlpool of manic energy. You get to relax here and there but most of the time theycome at you so decisively you gotta hang on to your brain. For my money these guys deliveredan LP on level with the bestfamous bands of the day, contemporaries like Led Zep, Rush,Deep Purple, Sabbath… based on the power and variety captured here it is clearly only a lackof promotion that kept Granicus off the charts.
It has hard prog moves in spades but also over the top energy with outrageous vocal movespowerful enough to have scored a big bullseye in teenage wasteland America 1973.
Woody Leffel had a long history in bands out of Cleveland like the Tree Stumps, Black RoseOutsiders, Renaissance Fair and success in Detroit at the Grande Ballroom opening for Cream, Bob Seger System, Blues Magoos and others. He came back to Cleveland in 1969 and heardhigh energy rock coming out of a house down the street, it was Allen Pinell on guitar and JoeBattaglia on drums, soon tobe joined by Dale Bedford on bass and Wayne Anderson on leadguitar, with Woody on lead vocals. Rather than concentrate on gigging like most local Cleveland bands, Granicus set up in a local warehouse and spent the next year developing original material. They moved to a house in upstate New York and perfected their sound, alsoheading down to NYC to perform, attracting attention enough to get signed by RCA Records.After about 10 days in the studio this beast of an LP was in the can and they started playingshows to promote it opening for acts like Cactus, Bob Seger, Spirit.
With no significant promotion, the LP was released in 1973 and sank without a trace. The band went back toCleveland, recorded an unissued second LP and broke up. By the late ‘70s the Granicus LP was already pulling premium $$ in NYC collector shops due to their following in western NewYork State, soon after that it’s reach went global as the market for vintage hard progressive underground rock exploded in the ‘80s. Half a century on Granicus sounds more potent than ever, clearly a highlight for the genre and more… while many of it’s elements are familiar, the power of the band and Woody’s scorching vocals take this into extreme sonic sports territory.No doubt a bit disorienting at first but when you get on board you will be dizzy gasping for air by the end of side one, barely able to focus and flip it over for side two. Seriously, this flirts with heavy prog rock complexity but kicks adrenalin ass to the point of outrageousness!
As theliner notes on the sleeve declare… “Granicus puts forward a musically cohesive, emotionally compelling vision of growing up wasted in America, searching desperately for andoccasionally glimpsing spiritual truth, in a climate foreshadowing Armageddon”. Granicus is named after a battle in 334 BC where Alexander The Great defeated the Persian Empire. Thisalbum has more than enough ammo to defeat your head right now, they take you deep down into the sordid demonic underbelly of America 1973, ending the LP with an ultimate rock androll exorcism. Appropriate to say fasten your seatbelts for this ride!