Montrose's 1973 debut album is a slashing slab of 70s hard rock bliss, from the outset the cowbell and screeching vocals sound like the arena rock of later 70s bands like Kiss and eventually hair metal come early. But the staccato rhythms recall Rush who were still a year away from releasing their debut, the spacey reverb, tumbling arpeggios, clanging double stops feel very much like Rush. Unlike that pretentious Canadian rockers the subject isn't as forced not to keep bringing it up but they seem to predate the 'Rush' sound a year early, while Sammy Hagar with his blonde perm seemed like a traveller form the early 80s. A severely underrated American hard rock group, while not an answer to Led Zeppelin, clearly able to hold their own against later exhilarating, jacked up hard rock of ACDC,
Space Station #5 is again more in the Sci-Fi realm of Rush with talkbox growls and astral whines of guitar like an army of theremins starting the track, this heavily phased distorted space rock must have inspired By-tor and the Snowdog its ridiculously similar. The tune carries a Sabbath fury with its chug and a proggy speed shuffle, while a Bonham-esque /When the Levee Breaks drum beat starts off Rock Candy which pretty much mimics a lot of Alex Lifeson's early playing. The Sci-Fi space rock promise is too often squandered by powerful arena rock struts like Good Rockin Tonight which are pure addictive hard rock, it's shame they didn't balance a bit more for a more ambitious debut
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