Light of Darkness – s/t. 1971. Light of Darkness are Scottish exiles in Germany. It’s rare when you can listen to an album and pinpoint EXACTLY what the influence is. I mean, Light of Darkness is a whole album concept based on only one song. And that song would be ‘The Wizard’ off of Black Sabbath’s first album. Each and every song on Light of Darkness has heavy power chord riffs and harmonica complete with a witchy Ozzy like voice. It’s kind of funny actually. And what the hell, I like that song, so it’s easy to listen to. Not easy to recommend however.

Dies Irae – First. 1971. Apparently the theme of this post is the use of harmonica in 1971 German hard rock albums. Dies Irae starts off poorly with a “mouth harp” disaster, before launching into some pretty creative heavy rock. In fact, I bumped this one up two points, as I completely missed its value when I had the LP some 15 years ago. And what I missed, and I wonder if anyone else has caught, a very strong semblance to one of Krautrock’s most revered albums: Scorpions “Lonesome Crow”. It’s not near as solid as the Brain label debut album, and does have a couple of more clunkers to sit through, but there’s enough here to warrant a couple of listens. And makes me wonder if the Schenker boys hadn’t lent an ear prior to waltzing into the studio.

Blackwater Park – Dirt Box. 1971. One of the more highly valued German hard rock albums, this one never had much impact for me. But I will say it’s better than I remembered, and there are at least two cuts that are pretty aggressive, and dare I say, almost creative. It’s a good 9er, and probably more for hard rock hounds. This one received an early reissue treatment, as one of the pioneering quality labels (Second Battle) tackled it.

Hairy Chapter – Can’t Get Through. 1971. Ha-ha, this just in, and might as well throw it in here too. Another revisit from an album I once owned in the 1980s (and it was too expensive to justify keeping). Same ballgame as the ones above, complete with some harmonica use. Though I will give Hairy Chapter credit for a great production and some extended guitar jamming. For this group of albums, “Can’t Get Through” and Dies Irae are the best ones to try first. BTW – I also revisited their debut “Eyes”, and it’s definitely a step below these albums – more straight ahead blues rock.