Steppenwolf

Highlighted by the fantastic opener and the buzzing, thumping psychedelic classic, "Magic Carpet Ride," Steppenwolf's second record is another good example of the roots of heavy metal. Not quite as heavy as Blue Cheer, yet most of the songs here were harder than anything else coming out in 1968, with bedrock riffs and distortion on top of distortion.

Steppenwolf's first album was a pleasant surprise. In a season of mainly mediocre releases,
even the best albums of recent months (with your choice of exceptions) suffered from a
depressing unevenness and should have been much better. By comparison, Steppenwolf's
first was a model of consistency which stood up well to repeated listening. While it opened
up no new worlds of music, the album did demonstrate that the "known world" o... More >