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Bedlam (9)

English hard rock group with Cozy Powell on drums, Frank Aiello on vocals, Dave Ball (fresh from Procol Harum) on guitar, and his brother Dennis Ball on bass. The band released only one album in 1973, which is a very solid slice of bluesy, funky hard rock, that surprisingly didn't garner more attention than it did. Not too far removed from what was coming out of the Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Cactus, Mountain, Budgie, Free, or Nazareth camps at the time, Bedlam showed a penchant for memorable, heavy rocking songs that featured the stellar musical interplay of Powell and the Ball brothers, plus the powerful vocals of Aiello. Cream producer Felix Pappalardi (Mountain) was in charge of their debut album. Cozy Powel (Jeff Beck Group, later Rainbow) Denny and Dave Ball (Procol Harum), had been playing together since 1968 in various constellations, leading up to a hugely promising band Bedlam, together with singer Frank Aiello. Earlier identities of the Ball/ Ball / Powell axis during 1968-1970 include Ideal Milk, Ace Kefford Stand and Big Bertha. Be sure to check out the complete anthology [r27660627] The CD-box contain Demos, Singles, Alternative mixes and Live recordings as the Ball/Ball/Powell axis valiantly attempted to locate their place in the broad sunlit uplands of the rock world. Debut album Bedlam: Though many tunes have a blues background, Ball's riffs are heavy, especially on tracks like "Believe in You", "Hot Lips", and "Seven Long Years", but there's also a funkiness at times that reminds of what Deep Purple where soon to jump into on the Burn and Stormbringer albums. For those who crave those heavy rockin', blues & boogie sounds of bands like Cactus and Mountain, check out the monstrous "Whiskey and Wine" and the hard driving "Putting On the Flesh" for some distorted riffs and crashing drum fills. "Set Me Free" is a bruising heavy rock track, with Aiello sounding a bit like Jack Bruce and the rest of the band really getting down and dirty for some fine proto-metal. It's songs like this that makes it mind boggling that this band didn't get more attention.