Montrose - Montrose (1973)

The debut album from this US band.

Montrose was a quartet with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums and vocals.

I have always heard about this band and I have always wanted to check them out. So when I spotted their 5 CDs box a couple of years ago, I bought it. But it has taken me until now to dive into this box. One of the CDs in the box is also a Ronnie Montrose solo album.

Besides of Ronnie Montrose, who gave the name to this band, you also find Sammy Hagar on vocals. The same man was less than complimentary about Ronnie in his self-biography released some years ago. But Ronnie Montrose can really play guitar and his guitars are really good. Ditto for Sammy's vocals.

This album has been branded as the first ever US heavy metal album. But I still think this is a hard rock album with some southern rock and blues influences. There is a lot of similarities with Led Zeppelin here. But Montrose was a hard rock band where Led Zeppelin was not.

This thirty-two minutes, eight minutes long album still stands up to scrutiny, forty-five years after it's release. It has a couple of very good songs (Rock Candy and Bad Motor Scooter) and some good songs. The overall quality is therefore good. This album is a treat for anyone into US hard rock.

3 points