Vincebus Eruptum

Another album that stands out because of when it happened more than what it's doing. However, if you released this today and said it was a Jack White side project, no one would doubt you.

Among albums recorded underwater, this one is the best.

I'd heard of Blue Cheer but never heard them... can see why people say they beat Black Sabbath to making the first heavy metal album, but while they might have a similar sound to early sabbath they sure as shit don't have the songwriting. The first two songs are covers and the rest seems to be kinda droney, sludgey jam tracks - a 32min album that felt like it dragged on. My guess is they're all one-take jobbies, probably recorded live. Pretty much everything after the cover songs felt like a "big ending" that just kept going and going. 2/5.

Kind of the missing link between Cream and Black Sabbath. Raw recording, love the imperfections. Favorite tracks: "Summertime Blues", "Rock Me Baby"

As pitchfork says, Blue Cheer are "musicians who... live not to perfect their technique, but to simply rock.". Well, that sounds GREAT to me. The playing is rough as guts and pretty over the top, especially the lead playing. Lots of bends and trills, feedback, barely in tune. The slow, heavy, vaguely blues based playing is a prototype for metal in general and stoner rock in particular. This is the shit. This sounds like they set up in a room, chucked a few mics in randomly and just started jamming it out. It's loud, noisy and obnoxious. And that's what I like!

Electrifying combo of blues, hard rock, and rip-roaring riffs and guitar solos. There's some ultra impressive drum work on here too, which I wasn't expecting.

Found this truly pointless. If this is the birth of Heavy Metal, I guess metal is hammy blues rock covers drenched in muddy guitar pedal effects.

Proto whatever your preferred genre of noise mess is. These guys make filthy, sludgy, gloopy rock--and all while looking like Hanson! Now if only they had a little of the blonde brothers' gumminess, this would actually be as crazy as they're trying to sound.

Third song should have been titled “Doctor Please … make this song stop”. I know it was early metal, but man these guys were clearly not good song writers. Summertime Blues cover is a classic though.

The riffs come about slowly, dreadful and hyper-distorted, built around depraved melodies. One of the Bands that really starts playing Heavy Metal. (7/10) Favourite Tracks: Doctor Please, Summertime Blues, Out of Focus

It's a very nice surprise to discover these pre-heavy metal bands that I did not know about before. An excellent album.

Solid album, but you can definitely tell this was their first album. Rough around the edges, but some really great ideas in there and some powerful sounds. Favorite Tracks: “Summertime Blues,” “Doctor Please,” and “Parchment Farm”

This is nice and heavy like Psychadelic proto-Fuzz. Definitely ahead of its time—you see the bridge from Cream to Black Sabbath. The drummer sounds does a great Ginger Baker impression. It’s Jammy, heavily distorted and short. Sometimes the jamminess comes off as repetitive and a little rough/unrehearsed. Pretty good. Would buy on Vinyl. B. 3.

Oh Lord, I got to raise a fuss, Lord I got to raise a holler About a playin' proto heavy metal just to try to earn a dollar Oh Lord, I tried to destroy my amps, your ears I did abuse Sometimes I wonder what I'm a gonna do Lord, there ain't no cure for the early hard rock heavy ear-splittin' blues

7/10. this album is pretty heavy n stuff but it doesnt totally click with me. i think just because of the audio quality? idk if its just the mono mix that i got but it sounds even fuzzier and harder to make out than a lot of 60s stuff already does. plus the songs themselves arent amazing imo, tend to go on for a while. by a bit before halfway thru it just felt like a ton of fuzzy psychedelic noise goin in one ear and out the other. might just be bc i have trouble focusing on stuff though.

Vincebus Eruptum is promising but disappointing at the same time, it's late 60s rock moving towards metal and has good ideas but not great execution, and given Hendrix was doing some of this stuff lightyears better before this came along, it doesn't really stand up to being included in a must-listen list. High 2, it's too rough to deserve another listen and not as influential as people think it was/is.

Direct and templated bluesy psychedelic rock from the '60s of which there is much too much on this list. Nothing distinguished here – not the vocals and the jamming is replacement level for the era. Maybe was influential the, but today is merely not bad and sorta boring.

Not for me ... at the time I could see it as breaking new ground, maybe. From the current paradigm, it feels derivative of all influences that are contributing to the sound, its a half-formed thought of what music should be. I imagine I hate people that point to this album as life changing.

If Black Sabbath's debut is the birth of metal, then this album is it's conception. So how does it sound? Well, it sounds like blues. But not like blues but like... █▄▄ █░░ █░█ █▀▀ █▀ █▄█ █▄▄ █▄█ ██▄ ▄█ Ridiculously heavy and psychedelic, it's not that pleasant as a listen. Not to mention the vocals, which felt like they were mere decorations to the gigantic sound. Yet for some reason, it rocked me hard. And I enjoyed it quite a lot.

Sounded like controlled chaos

J'ai adoré le moment où le chanteur casse sa guitare et l'enflamme sur scène devant un public éberlué.

Interesting artefact, and to hear the roots of metal, but the record itself is heaving going

These guys sure do sound like Hendrix and The Who did at that time. Summertime Blues is a dead ringer for The Who's live version. Let me guess, these guys saw Hendrix and The Who at the Monterey Pop festival (down the road from where they live), started to play like them and rushed an album out in time for the new wave of heavy metal? I like late 60s heavy metal. This is where it all started and it was original and exciting back then. I'm just not sure how much of the wave can be attributed to influence from these guys. They deserve a few points for how fleet footed they were jumping on the bandwagon.

This is interesting, it's got some cool moments, proto metal type stuff, and I quite like it - it's got a bit more edge than a lot of stuff that was floating around at the time. That said, there's plenty from that era that did this better, it's too rough and the production is painful in places. Think it deserves a 3, I enjoyed it, but it's a low one.

Proto-metal. Heavy Acid Rock. I have a weakness for 60's era fuzzy guitar and I think I just OD'd. They are obviously channeling Cream and trying to take it to the next level. The results are mixed at best. This is a studio album that sounds live. I read someone's comment that said it is the missing link between Cream and Black Sabbath and I kind of agree although its not nearly as accomplished as either. It sounds like the generic scene setting music being played in the background of a house of ne'er do well hippie druggies in a 60's police drama. The album is short but feels long, which is never a good sign. Some tunes, in excessive effort to make them seem epic, go on way too long. Others seem like they are not fleshed out ideas that start and end with no real development. However, for me, they completely hit the mark with their cover of Summertime Blues. Its one of the 1st songs I remember listening to over and over on my own albeit the Eddie Cochran version. Later on I loved The Who's version. But when I heard this around 10 years old, I think my head exploded; I loved it. On the strength of that song, and the inarguable fact that this album is a priceless museum piece, I give it a 3.

Cochran x Hendrix = a heavy blues-rock soup! Nothing stands out until the final track 'Second Time Around' which was cool. Not cool enough for me to ever play this again though!

Cool to listen to some early heavy metal but I can’t see myself coming back to this.

“We have Jimi Hendrix at home”

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: None Cutting Edge: Rock Me Baby, Out of Focus Overall Notes: Yeah this ain't it chief. Not as god awful as it was as background music the first time listening to it but definitely not my thing.

yuck wasnt remastered so it sounds tinny and terrible

Felt like it dragged on, even for such a short album. Typically a fan of heavy metal but didn't really enjoy this, only redeemable song was Out of Focus.

Nice heavy metal or hard rock

Zalig hoe je hoort op welke manier deze muziek invloed heeft gehad op latere genres! Weer iets onbekend die me verraste

Loved it! An early forerunner of lots of stuff I like, and one of the first power trios. Every song was great, but their version of summertime blues was greatest for me. Really intrigued to hear more of their stuff.

It is uncanny how much the White Stripes sound like these guys. Never heard of them before but this album is fire.

What a great record! Never heard it but it’s amazing!

Pioneers.

Epic album. Amazing sound by a super talented band

Wow, dit vind ik tof. Blues is niet mijn ding maar als j het zo speelt!! ook live gezien op Roadburn, fantastisch toen

I do love a power trio.

This rules

excellent hidden gem, hadn't heard about them before, but enjoyed the proto-heavy metal sound.

I needed this today. "Vincebus Eruptum" is the debut album by American rock band Blue Cheer. Hard rock, pyschedelic rock, acid rock and heavy metal are the assigned genres and they all fit but this album is known as and considered one of the first heavy metal albums. The band was a trio consisting of Dickie Pearson (vocals, bass), Leigh Stephens (guitar) and Paul Whaley (drums). The album did well commercially hitting #11 in the US and was well received by the critics. The album opens with a cover of Eddie Cochran's " Summertime Blues." This is fast and heavy. Rolling drums and bass. The guitar explodes and goes in all directions. The song gets faster. This is chaotic, messy and wonderful. Lead singer Pearson mentioned the result had something to with large amounts of LSD. They do another cover in B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby." It's slower, more bluesy. Two large extended guitar solos by Leigh Stephens. There are four words to describe "Doctor Please:" lo-fi, fuzzy, hazy and heavy. Another chaotic monster guitar jam. It's a song about whether Person should take drugs; no need to think about what direction he took. In "Out of Focus," you really start to see the influence of Jimi Hendrix in Stephens' guitar sound. The song has got a groove and is funky. There's also some high level screaming by Pearson. Pounding drums, a thumping bass and driving guitar begin the closer "Second Time Around." Stephens guitar is oscillating between melodic and random, extended solos. Whaley gives a "Moby Dick-esque" drum solo. There's a long silence which goes into guitar solo and the song ends in two-minutes of total chaos. Amen my friends. This album is just fantastic. The band sounds like a punk-i-fied, more reckless version of Led Zeppelin. The music is energetic, fuzzy, garage, lo-fi, heavy, chaotic and totally rockin.' At times the band goes off in random directions and I don't even know if they know where they're going, what the other musicians are doing or if they even care. Leigh Stephens' guitar playing is just plain awesome taking off in each song...very unique. This is an album that every person that likes hard rock needs to listen to.

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That was awesome - definitely adding it to my collection. I can't believe I've never heard of them! Raw and hard.

Sounds much later than it was. Class heavy blues.

Like early Sabbath. Loved it.

Absolutely fantastic album. Only knew the first track, never heard any of the other songs before. I found nothing about this that would discourage me from listening to more. 5 stars easy peasy.

Ich kenne "Blue Cheer" gar nicht, aber nach dem ersten Anhören gefällt mir das Bild, die Band ist das Bindeglied vom Blues zu Heavy Metal. Auch dass sie der Funken für Black Sabbath seien. Alles nachvollziehbar. Harter Blues, lange Solis, anspruchsvolle Arrangements, was ist mit da entgangen.

cool

This felt like early metal, and I loved it.

Kicks ass. Cant believe I’ve never heard this album.

Kicks ass.

Loved the album as a whole. Exactly what it needed to be. Second half of the last track was a little much for me but still giving it a 5.

Classic 70s rock

Whoa. Hard to find to listen to but it was worth the hunt - oh the fuzz and the fuzz - the drums pounding throughout and the voices tearing through this 30 min powerhouse of an album. I’m sold on blue cheer - kind of in the world of a more bluesy stooges and a rougher hendrix experience.

Captures rock of its era

Even the causal metal fan is familiar with this band and the cover of Summer Time Blues, though Parchment Farm is the true gem. Also one of the few proto metal bands that was not from England. The good is of course the music, big loud fuzzy guitars, this is the birth of Doom/Stoner metal for sure. My biggest problem is some of the vocals especially on Doctor Please. It's a 4 star album but I'm given 5 given how influential it is on music that I love so much.

What an amazing album, straight out of the gritty demonic psychedelic 60s. The self penned songs are really great and the covers are the hardest takes of said songs at the time. Its not really heavy metal but it's Cream or Jefferson Airplane turned to 11.

This is what I'm here for! I had never heard or heard of these guys or this album, and its a great album. Its very "of its time" but its got a lot of future-looking sound in it as well. 5/5

There are bands today still trying to recreate the sound and intensity of this record. You can hear the DAN of so many hard rock and metal genres forming in the incredibly brief run time of this album. Loved it. Gnarly.

I have heard of Blue Cheer before. I had always read they were "proto" heavy metal. And yeah, that's exactly what this is, similar to Deep Purple. And I love it. It's raw and low production, but that's cool with me. There's quite a bit of jammin' too. I love it.

That was chaos, but I really liked it. At times it sounded like each member of the band was playing a completely different song from each other. Very early heavy rock which I really enjoyed

Very cool grooves and riffs. I dig the lofi sound

Awesome psychedelic album in the vein of Cream, Jefferson Airplane, and Iron Butterfly. Even more badass that they're only a trio. 68 was really when acid rock hit its peak and this album is a part of that and a big influence on a lot of music to come, from metal to prog to fusion. Would probably give this 4.5 stars if I could. Also super refreshing listen after a bunch of the recent garbage.

Blue Cheer doesn't get enough credit for how much they had to do with the start of metal. Gritty tones and raw recording from start to finish.

Great rawk, 4 stars.

Very interested. Ground breaking.

As pitchfork says, Blue Cheer are "musicians who... live not to perfect their technique, but to simply rock". Well, that sounds GREAT to me. The playing is rough as guts and pretty over the top, especially the lead playing. Lots of bends and trills, feedback, barely in tune. The slow, heavy, vaguely blues based playing is a prototype for metal in general and stoner rock in particular. This is the shit. This sounds like they set up in a room, chucked a few mics in randomly and just started jamming it out. It's loud, noisy and obnoxious. And that's what I like!

Hard rock

Cool getting to know heavy metal origins... Guitar melodies were catchy

Way ahead of their time. The beginning of metal!

Love how raw this is

Loved the tones and production. Great band

That was a jam and I enjoyed the hell out of it. This is often cited as the first metal album and it's not wrong. It's proto-metal but all of the things that I love about metal are here. It's chunky and shreddy and fully off the leash and I really liked it. The only reason this doesn't get full marks is because the recording is an utter mess. It's just... so poorly produced. I suppose that can be forgiven to some extent since, at this point, nobody had ever recorded a metal album so nobody knew how. But it's still a real mess and I just can't quite give it 5 stars.

Sweet old school, heavy rock.

Vincebus eruptum, czyli pseudo lacinska translacja blue cheera, wiec pierwszy krazek bandy selftitlledowy w bardzo stonerskim klimacie, bo sam blue cheer to nazwa popularnego na rynku w tamtych czasach LSD, ktore rozprowadzal patronajt od gratefulowych deadow, wiec od tego pewnie wziela sie nazwa zespolu, ewentualnie od proszku do prania, ale to raczej elesdyk zabral nazwe od proszku, a potem banda go zabrala na wlasny uzytek, ale czym muzycznie jest niebieski doping, banda z 67 hameryka kalifornia, wiec klimaty dzieci kwiatow, ale na modle metalowa, sama plyte mozna podzielic na covery klasycznych rokowych trakow, jak sumertime blues cochrana czy parchmanowej farmy allisonona, ktora jednak bardziej kojarze z wersji blues breakersow mayalla i rock me baby b b kinga, wspolnym mianownikiem tych trakow sa ich bluesowe korzenie, to co robi blue cheer na tym materiale, to budowanie pomostu pomiedzy bluesem do metalu, z czego wyszlo acidowe rokowanie o poteznym brzmieniu, nie tylko jesli chodzi o decybele, ale takze o surowy styl granych tutaj rifow, ktore w niektorych miejsach, brzmia wrecz zeppelinowo, a to prawie dwa lata przed ich pierwsza plyta, wiec cheerowcy byli prawdopodobnie pionierami tego stylu grania, prosty z ostrym jebnieciem i energia, ktora czuc takze na wokalu pana petersona, ktory jako frontmen napisal takze 3 orginalne traki, ktore stanowia druga czesc krazka, jesli by go podzielic na covery i orginalne kompozycje, to wlasnie z tych orginalnych kompow mozna w pelni przyznac bandzie miano stonerow, bo tematycznie bardzo lekowo, zwlaszcza na doctor please, ktory brzmi jak litania drugersowa wierzacego kwasiarza, niestety nie moge dodac nic na spotifaja, bo zbyt podziemmna plyta, cale szczescie z pomoca kolejny raz przyszedl soulseek, wiec pobralem sobie dwie wersje, zeby miec porownanie, z 2k03 remaster z dodatkowym trakiem, all night long, oraz projekt audiofilow z nipona z roku 2k17, ktory polega na odtwarzaniu w mozliwie jak najlepszej jakosci zapomnianych a kultowych materialow i roznica w jakosci obu tych wersji jest kolosalna, remaster z 2k03 brzmi jak tanie stereo, bo jest to migracja z mono do stereo, a cos takiego praktycznie nigdy nie jest czyms dobrym dla materialu koncowego, natomiast japonska wersja to wymasterowane mono, ktore genialnie oddaje glebokosc sceny, czy zmiane kanalow, czy fejkowe endingi, zeby wrocic z rosnacym basem jak na second time around, jeden z hajlajtowych momentow plyty w moich uszach, wlasnie takich albumow chcialbym wiecej na liscie, przelomowych, a jednoczesnie niezbyt znanych szerokiemu gronu sluchaczy

Surprised I've never heard of Blue Cheer. Really cool short album. Heavy for its time. Wasn't on Spotify.

really enjoyed this

In Sydney in 1968 there was only one radio show where you were likely to hear this album - Thompson Underground, hosted by John Thompson on 2UW, very late on Friday night & early Saturday morning. It’s where I first heard bootleg trax, Zappa, Paul Butterfield, & definitely where I first heard Blue Cheer. I was in love with Eddie Cochran’s Summertime Blues when I first heard his original single ten years earlier. What Blue Cheer did with it on this album became a template for the way metal bands would interpret rock’n’roll classics or, indeed any music - I think it reached a crazy nadir/peak when Nazareth decided to do Joni Mitchell’s This Flight Tonight. They give B.B.King’s Rock Me Baby more of a blues treatment & the late, great Mose Allison’s Parchment Farm cops a bit of both approaches. I remember hearing this album back in the day very fondly. And it still sounds good to me. Even the drum solo.

Was great

Fierce, noisy, classic. The album starts out ridiculously strong with that exceptional cover of "Summertime Blues" and burns beautifully to the end. Rough-edged and a little jammier than I generally like, but this was a solid listen. Fave Songs: Summertime Blues, Doctor Please, Rock Me Baby, Second Time Around

Never heard before. Nice notes of 70's such rock

Loves it. Rock n roll

Bra

The birth of heavy metal, and it was beautiful. A true power trio firing on all cylinders.

pretty good listen, no bad songs, nothing insane but a nice discovery

Sound was a bit limp in places, but energy wasn't. Love that this is proto metal.

Goede old-school rock

Got some Hendricks vibes from this, whatever happened to this kind of guitar playing?

Really interesting album. At first it was hard to hear the influence on heavy metal, but it definitely grew to be like that as the album went on. I enjoyed the mash up of 60s sound, blues, and hard rock. Favorite track: Doctor Please

Blue Cheer's restraint could be taken for the minimizing kind if it weren't for the final minutes of Vincebus Eruptum, the whetting of the appetite for more, and the perfect match to me in musical style and haircut.

I personally hate the summertime blues song because I was forced to sing it over and over in elementary school. Other than that this band kind of rules. I had never heard of them but apparently they kind of started heavy metal. I probably won’t listen to this album much but I respect it. Talented musicians and all that. The drum solo and bass line in Second Time Around are fun.

Top 3 Songs: 1 - Rock Me Baby (2) 2 - Second Time Around (6) 3 - Summertime Blues (1)

Holy shit this is heavy

SETE. CAMINHO ATRÁS DO PREJUÍZO. METADE NÃO SE OUVE, CRL CRL CRL CRL CRL CRL CRL CRL CRL VROOM VROOM POW KABOOM MotA: Out of Focus "Oh Lord, I got to raise a fuss, Lord I got to raise a holler"

Had some Deep Purple kinda vibes (I think, that's the first artist that comes to mind.)

It's rare to hear an album that is so clearly the origin point for a genre of music, but this one seems pretty clear. I've never heard an earlier album that sounded like heavy metal, and later heavy metal albums don't have the 60s psychedelic sound wrapped into them the way this does. All of the elements of what would become heavy metal are here. Even the overly grandiose album title is present. As far as the music goes, they put out a hell of a lot of sound for a trio. The production could be a bit better, and some of the songs could be a little more interesting, but at the same time they were clearly experimenting with something here they deserve a lot of credit for the innovation in their sound 4/5

Aito tykitys

Heavy fuzz sound and almost sounds like a mix between stoner rock and heavy metal. Very proto-metal as it doesn't have the characteristic Black Sabbath early heavy metal sound but it's close. I found the quality of the recording to be lacking but that could be because I couldn't find the whole album on a streaming service. Maybe if I find it on vinyl it sounds better.