Armageddon - Armageddon

A resonant epitaph for ex- Yardbird Keith Relf

Armageddon’s lone LP was a regular sight in mid-70s bargain bins, its luridly over-literal sleeve promising little more than sludgy, bottom-feeding, lowest common denominator rock.

As it happens, that’s a resoundingly unfair and untrue assessment. Certainly, it’s a rock album, but limber and adrenalised at a time when Armageddon’s immediate competitors were dragging their stack heels. Much of the album’s engaging vitality stems from the tireless drumming of Allman Brothers and Captain Beyond émigré Bobby Caldwell, a veritable geyser of frenetic energy. His explosive press rolls and precipitous fills on flat-out rocker Buzzard and 11-minute set-piece Basking In The White Of The Midnight Sun sound like Jon Hiseman sitting on Neal Peart’s shoulders, grabbing the tracks in question by the tour T-shirt and bodily hurling them forward.

With due respect to Caldwell and ex-Steamhammer wielders Martin Pugh and Louis Cennamo, however, the album belongs to former Yardbird Keith Relf. The peculiar and compelling timbre of his voice – simultaneously strident and ghostly – imbues the likes of Silver Tightrope with dignity and grace, while the sinewy grit of his blues harp adds intuitive magic. Relf would be dead within months of Armageddon’s release, but epitaphs don’t come much classier.

Esoteric | ECLEC 2150

Reviewed by Marco Rossi
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