Vincebus Eruptum

This sounds like a high school garage band that kind of got their shit together.

I was reading recently about Jimi Hendrix’s studio antics. Full of party people and revelry but a meticulous perfectionist to get the take he wanted. Feels like Blue Cheers had the party part nailed but not quite the same dedication to ensuring the quality of output.

A no filler bluesy rock album. Pretty solid.

Seeing that it inspired better music down the line, it's pretty good. But, on it's own, just middle of the road. Definitely not going to my regular rotation.

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.

Blues based rock and roll with stripped down production.

I guess they got there first but it really reminds me of Led Zeppelin. Not sure if i'd listen to this again.

Hard album to rate. Influential, sure. Good? Not really. Vocal recording sucks, lyrics aren't good. Can see how this is sort of going to be what heavy rock/metal will be, but not something that's as good as others that were doing it just slightly later.

Can hear the early metal ideas, goes hard but isn’t too long

Eh

This was a nice surprise, little 60s psychedelic blues.

This was actually pretty good. Early heavy metal blues? I didn't know it was a thing. Not all of it was great, but it most definitely exceeded my expectations. I absolutely love the global's top comment that this sounds like Jack White.

I thought this was great. So bluesy. I really can’t believe they don’t get played on classic rock stations. Maybe it’s just a bit too old but I love the blues.

7.5/10 Hard/psychedelic rock. Court.

It was okay, doubt I’ll listen to it again though.

Not a fan.

It's certainly Bluesey and certainly Heavy. Without the 'was it the first Heavy Metal album?' questions it's an enjoyable record to listen to- not especially well played, sung or produced but I think they stumbled onto something that caught on. Good for them.

Thank god this album was only 32 minutes because holy hell was that bad. Nonsensical "singing" and instrumentals all over the place. 3/10.

Just not a fan of metal

👎

Doctor Please vond ik het beste nummer. De mix is vrij muddy en vocals torenen er een beetje boven uit. Kon dit album wel waarderen, zoals de wiki zei is het een van de eerste metal albums en cool om te horen hoe het van bluesy naar harder gaat

Wikipedia told me that this had been placed in a list if the 40 greatest metal albums of all time. Interesting, I thought. I liked a bit of metal back in the 80s, I'll see what's on the list. Hmmm... I mean, the list has some nice records on it. But it's also got a Rate album on it - and Ratt were objectively utter shite. I bought that album when I was deluded and young. If it's on this list it'll get a 1. And, oh help me Mrs Medlicott I don't know what to do, there's a Motley Crue album on the list as well... So, yeah, inclusion on that list is clearly no indicator of even half decentness, let alone greatness. I can see, maybe, why this might have been quite important in the history of the genre. But it's not great really is it? The bluesy stuff is better - I disliked the cover of Summertime Blues because it was really quite boring, but preferred the version of Rock me baby. Overall I tolerated it. I wouldn't necessarily skip a tune if it came up, but I'll never go searching for it again - I'd rather listen to some early Rush or Quo.

Interesting - what Black Sabbth would sound like if they did the blues? Also reminds me a little bit of Stray.

Not much going on

Listened Before? No Late 60's psychedelic hard rock. This is a really interesting album from a recording and production standpoint. It has the feel of a loose improve session where the recording was heavily resource constrained. All of the tracks have super condensed instrumentals that form a distorted wall of sound, with the vocals layered way out in front. In combination with the rough recording quality, the instrumentals often feel improvised and muddy. Makes for what appears to be an authentic look into what a live show from Blue Cheer might look like. Interesting mix on Summertime Blues (I've only ever heard The Who's version) that pulls the vocals painfully forward of the instrumental which is condensed into the form factor of a soup can and near completely drowned out. I do enjoy the roughness of the cut they decided to run with; gives it a more authentic bluesy feel. Breakdown sounds a hell of a lot like Foxy Lady. Rock Me Baby is a slow blues trudge built for head nodding. Solid non-nonsese jam. I only wish that these guys had a proper recording studio to get a little focus on the instrumentals. Parchment Farm is interesting in the way that the rug kind of pulls out half way through for a jammy interlude. Then revitalizes in a completely different key once the vocals join back in. I enjoyed this and can see where it may have had significant influence on heavy metal in decades to come. Pretty cool listen: 4 / 5 for me. Added to Library? Yes

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.

Första låten okej i alla fall.

Kinda mid, sounded like an average rock band. Not too bad.

This was a lot of fun, reminded me of some of the heavy neo-psych stuff that was coming out in the mid/late 00s. Liked this quite a bit more than most of my recent albums, so it's a 4 for now. We'll see if it stays there long term, but hey.

Eh

One of the worst albums I've ever heard. Would give it zero stars if I could

a bridge between blues/psychedelic rock and the harder heavy metal that came after, this album was a fun listen, but I didn't really a whole lot of contrast between the songs.

I first heard of Blue Cheer in a documentary titled Metal: A Headbanger's Journey. They were identified as the first "heavy metal" band. Their music was the beginnings of a tangent away from psychadelic rock and blues rock of the 60's, and the start of a heavier, fuzzier, overdriven heavy metal style. Apparently, they also played their music super, super loud, which is metal AF. This is the first time I've ever listened to anything of theirs with the exception of Summertime Blues. The vocals were yelled more than sang, the instruments were thrashed upon, and there wasn't a hell of a lot of talent aside from knowing blues scales, but this was a hell of a record all the same. Overall, this was revolutionary. These guys were way ahead of their time! Shortly after this came out, Black Sabbath started doing their thing, and the rest is history. Although this wasn't my favourite album, it is a piece of history, so points for that! Favourite songs: Summertime Blues, Rock Me Baby, Parchment Farm, Out of Focus, Doctor Please Least favourite songs: Second Time Around 3/5

Very 70's psychedelic rock (reminds me of the Doors); okay, but not my jam

Has a very garage rock sound to it, it’s cool but didn’t keep my interest too much. Also not my favorite version of summertime blues but overall cool album

Monotonous hippie junk.

Prototype heavy metal. Interesting artifact but there is a reason few people remember them.

I thought the length of the songs were good and overall the album got through speedily and efficiently. I think that for being an album that helped inspire many hardcore rock ones, it was a little bit of a letdown, but all in all it wasn’t bad in any way.

Early (1981/2) MTV would play anything they could find which was amazing - so many early/60s clips from British music/variety shows I'd never heard of etc. and one was for "Summertime Blues" - what the hell, who are these old guys I'd never heard of who were doing a weird cover of that Who song from Live At Leeds (... being ~10, so I had little context)? I've never heard the entire album before today. Totally respecting that it was quite different from anything else at the time - not sure Sabbath could/would have developed their sound w/o these guys. So their (Eddie Cochran) cover of "Summertime Blues" for me is by far the best cut on the disc, the rest are just sorta there and not ... really great songs at all, but again I appreciate it's more about the heavy sound they brought - and it is cool to listen to in that vein. But 32 minutes is more than enough of the history lesson for this morning. 5/10 2 stars.

Good ideas, heavy for the time, but I didn’t love it. Didn’t find anything worth latching on to.

Dull and raw and too loud. May have been influential then but it's well outlived any enjoyability or usefulness it may have once had.

4.5

I rather enjoyed this.

I think it was ok just kinda forgettable

Its almost like a parody of the times. Didn't hold up well.

Is this anything other than someone yelling over very generic guitar riffs? Oh wait, it included a long drum solo. Now I'm definitely totally impressed.

eh probably like 2.5? A little psychedelic never hurt I guess.

ehhh

The sounds of the 60's from Surf Rock to Hendrix to the Blues are pervasive throughout the album, but it's all quite different. If the first true Heavy Metal album is Black Sabbath, this definitely helped clear the way. The sound quality is a little rough and could definitely use a remaster. An interesting listen and clear path of evolution in music

Ok

It's an enjoyable racket, sort of Hendrixy pounding but it doesn't feel like it has a huge amount of direction, necessarily. Everything lasted about 2 minutes longer than you'd like, which is tough on a 30 minute album.

it was ok. nothing too ambitious but it never overstayed its welcome. always glad to hear blues influence throughout!

Strong 6/10

Heavier Psych Rock than expected, not bad but nothing really stands out

Certainly one of the contenders for first heavy metal band (tm) summertime blues is an excellent reworking of one of the top 20 songs of the rock era. Ok, the who did it first, but blue cheer slowing it down gave it a certain something. The rest of the album is less assured - they’re trying for something new, but not quite getting it. To be fair, they’re in uncharted waters and we’re listening with massive hindsight. Still I prefer the kinks, the who, cream, yardbirds, sabbath, cream and zeppelin as pioneers.

A musical education for me. The first few tracks are ok...but.... Sounds a lot like 1968 Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix, (could it be they had the same peddles and guitars?)so.... Blue Cheer is, for me, unheard of... and I have no idea how this was called Heavy Metal. Different times. Anyway. It's ok, as a historical album. But not listening again... Only can only listen to so many guitar solos.... 3 stars tops. 2.5 maybe.

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.

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!

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.

Immediately reminds me of Jimi Hendrix and Deep Purple. Overall a pretty solid album and I can definitely hear the early heavy metal sounds that this album helped discover. Enjoyable listen, but not too much more than that for me.

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

Pretty solid feedback rock. I dig it but it does become a bit much after awhile.

eh

2/5

En extrapoäng för att dom var så jävla tidiga med metal-soundet.

Hard rock

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

Great rawk, 4 stars.

I don’t like metal

Sounds just like the cover art. I like the opening cover song, a fun interpretation. Otherwise seemed pretty pedestrian occasionally wandering into long and boring territory. But I guess that's actually a complement that their overall sound became so mainstream. The album is fine, 2.5 stars, and probably does belong on this list.

So much electric guitar 😬

Not everyone heard this album but everyone who did started a band, and all those bands fucking suck

It was ok, pretty heavy and different for the era

👍

Bon blues lourd. Certaines paroles misogynes plus difficiles à avaler

Eh, not the best, certainly not the worst.

Ok album but not my thing

Interesting album whose musical decision of long solos prevent a higher rating or daily rotation.

Was great

Okay, so probably I understand why this album has a place on a list - heavy metal sound in sixties, even before Black Sabbath, or any other prototype of metal genre. So kudos to Blue Cheer, their experiment might or might not influenced quite a big chunk of music in the years to come. On the other hand, "Vincebus Eruptum" is totally not listenable by any means. The vocal is atrocious, the guitar have that shredding, deeply distorted sound, but together with the rest of the instruments it feels like a randomised game of "you go, I go". I survived first two songs, which were covers, so it had some kind of structure, but as soon as we moved into uncharted territory of Blue Cheer's imaginations I had to throw in the towel and surrender. In my opinion it was one of the worst albums I have heard on this list.

Great electric guitar and fuzzy amp sound. Not great overall.

Never heard of this band or album, but I'm always up for some early heavy metal. Should be interesting! Overall I enjoyed this and see the influence of it, but I found some of the songs outstayed their welcome. Probably not one I would re-listen to often.

Blue Cheer working that psychedelic blues rock formula. All the trappings of early hazy, slightly heavy jams are here. The best song on the record is the first and it is a cover of Summertime Blues. If you enjoy blissed out fuzz tones over blues scales, Blue Cheer are for you.

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.

This band influenced a lot of better ones. Much better ones. I feel like I should like it, but I really don't like it at all. Respect for the influence factor but I found this a chore to get through. It could've easily been a 1 for me.

⭐ Parchment Farm

Love how raw this is

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

Love psychedelic rock but a little before my time, admittedly don’t know a deep inventory of the bands, seemed like a pretty solid representation, great electric guitar

This started terribly, but it sort of grew on me like an eruptum of mold

I can’t say I enjoyed listening to it, but I appreciated it as an early version of Heavy Metal. The recording quality is horrendous.

Damn I really like that whole album, listened 3 times, better each time!

*rips bong*

Score: 60 Prototype music. Some pretty cool stuff in here, if the production was better or this album got a remaster it would definitely be better. Not really the albums fault for being released forever ago.

First time hearing of this band and record. Reading the wiki, I see this is one of the first bands to play heavy metal. The production is almost non existent, and it's pretty rough to listen to. It also seemed like they kind of made it up as they went along. I feel like they didn't know how to start or end any songs and it all just blended together into an almost never ending noise. It felt like time moved slower when listening to this, even though it's pretty short. These ratings are about my personal taste, and just because it was the first, doesn't necessarily make it good. 1.5/5

I had never heard of this band. It's fine, doesn't grab me at all. I guess it's on hear because it's supposedly one of the first "heavy metal" albums. I am not a bluesmen at all, and this is just way too bluesy for me. It has a rawness to it, which I certainly appreciate, but this does not grab me at all.

It's an early example of heavy music, but it might be the worst example of early heavy music. Dickie Peterson brags that he wrote Doctor, Please in 10 minutes. It shows.

Extremely mid

ihan hyvä albumi jonka pilaa aika erittäin paska laatu. ei aina ole huonoksi esimerkiksi hipitus hopituksessa joskus mutta elektroninen kitara ei maistu näin, spotifyssä ei koko albumia mutta ei säväyttänyt tarpeeksi ettå metsästäisin loput...(kertoo varmaan jotain heh(että ei hyvä albumi siis(heh))) parchment farm

This is kind of a mess. It really is a proto record. But it should just be remembered for that. At least it's short.

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

Typical sound of the time period

I'm glad it was short! I do sometimes love face-melting noise, but it has to the right kind of song, topic, style, and genre for that to be my thing. This wasn't it.

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

Back half is better. Mixing was bad. Can hear what they are going for and I am sure it was new at the time but probably wouldn't listen again

Tinny, silly, gutless...but yeah sure. I guess I can hear the metal roots underneath. Still...pretty rough listening. 2nd track is better. Got some soul to it. Gets better as it goes. Really underserved by the recording technology.

no esta en spotify

They didn't invent metal, they just couldn't play or write tunes.

Very enjoyable hard rock, sophisticated but still heavy and distorted. Scratches that ear itch real good

60s rock with classic Summertime Blues

weird album, pretty good though

70s garage band. meh

Loves it. Rock n roll

Very unique at times, give me a Jimi Hendrix vibe. However “Out of Focus” is just a total mess for me. The guitar solo clashing with each other is a nope for me.

As someone who enjoys metal, I was hoping to like this. Unfortunately, it is terribly boring. It doesn’t help that the drums are tinny and the bass lacks any presence at all.

I've never heard of Blue Cheer, and all of the music from Vincebus Eruptum was new to me (with the exception that they did a cover of "Summertime Blues"). The album was okay. The music seemed to look towards psychodelia, but not fit into that genre. Blue Cheer also seemed to channel Jimi Hendrix throughout the album, even to the point of playing a few bars of his work in the middle of "Summertime Blues." The album was okay, but was getting too noisy for me on side two.

Bra

Pioneers.

Never heard of this band before but it definitely felt like it was from a transition period in music. Still it was lacking something that would make it great.

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

HL: "Parchment Farm", "Summertime Blues", "Second Time Around" On one hand, almost the whole album has this muddy, gross quality to it, which started to feel one-note. Even its breakthrough cover of "Summertime Blues" (which I've listened to a couple of times earlier this year) is something I can only enjoy in small doses. I did however, start to groove to this album by the final drum + bass solos, turning off my brain, not trying to measure its influence on later metal & punk albums. Y'know, just enjoying 3 musicians shredding in the studio. December 21 2022, the frigid winter solstice

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

I get why this was on the list, but it wasn’t my cuppa.

I had to skip most songs at about 1/4 through because they were unlistenable. I had hoped because they sounded a bit like Jimi Hendrix. But no. A big meh.

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.

Goede old-school rock

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

Stand-outs: "Out of Focus," "Summertime Blues"

- Never heard of this - Very much ahead of its time, obvious influence on Sabbath - Preferred some of the jammier songs - Fav songs: Doctor Please, Second Time Around, Out of Focus

I guess there was a time for this

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.

alright

I didn't enjoy this as much as I hoped I might. Possibly being a bit harsh with the scoring but I can't just give everything a 3

Chill music for stiners

A mix of 13th Floor Elevators, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Iron Butterfly (complete with drum solo) and early Led Zeppelin, with a healthy dose of blues influences. All that and coming in at under 33 minutes to pack a healthy punch. What's not to like?

I guess you get onto the 1001 list just for being loud. A highly overrated band who produced nothing of any real consequence. Yes they were aggressive, loud and a little out of control, but they were not original or really that inspiring. Basic blues mangled rather badly, that really does not hold up in comparison to Hendrix, The Doors, Moby Grape, The Rolling Stones, Cream etc. etc who all released material the year before. The material written by them is just a mess (tracks 3, 4 and 6)

I didn't like this album. The songs weren't enjoyable and felt like they would never end. Definitely not for me. Favorite song: N/A Worst song: Doctor Please

If you wrote an album to be exactly what I didn't want to hear in music, it wouldn't be half as bad as this. The most uninspired garbage I've ever heard. Safe and unexciting.

Ok

Liked the blues of track 2. Makes me think if the MC5 were a jam band, this would be it.

Decent but not my preferred kind of music

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 hit on the album is good but just feels sorta middle of the road for me…

Ugh, I hate this. I like a guitar, but this is just grating and an assault on the ears. Production is terrible. They sound reeeeally amateur, like they're a teen band who haven't learnt how to play with each-other properly yet. Why the fuck does the lead guitar keep cutting in and warbling in a different tempo and style to the rest of it? This is the kind of thing I'd expect to see in a comedy film or parody - a lead character in a band who thinks they're good and are tearing it up, but the reality is they're shit and the audience are laughing at them. This is the first album to make me properly angry. Fuck this noise. I'm not a fan at all, and neither is my tinnitus. 1/5

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

ymmärrän, bluessista väänettyä metallia liekö kaverit keksiny

2.5

It gets all the credit in the world for being something of a forefather to heavy metal, but it's still basically garage heavy metal. Nothing here holds up, aside from an interesting cover of "Summertime Blues".

Quite passable

A whole lot of fuzz. Sounds like a whole lot of those other San Fran bands from the late 60s. Probably groundbreaking at the time but not something I would want to listen to on repeat.

Loose and raw, a little excessive at times. Fans of the Velvet Underground or Iggy Pop and the Stooges might dig.

Holy shit this is heavy

Very advanced for the time, great and innovative sounds. Led Zepplinny. Very cool.

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

Not bad. Thundering drum set. Feels like if you took the members of Cream when they were still in high school and playing together in their garage before they really developed their skills, this is what you might get.

They sound like the 60's just not done that well compared to the good stuff.

Never heard it but it sounds like something played to parody the 60s in San Francisco.

This is the White Stripes and Jack if he was jamming in the late 60's. Again - late 60's is a rough era for production but I'll give this a solid 3 for jazz infused rock and jam session.

Pretty good, interesting guitar (especially solos), drumming, and bass lines. Mixing felt really weird, with the music being much quieter than vocals.

Summertime Blues is the best song on this record but that isn't saying much. Overall very messy production. The guitar work is fine and at points is very ahead of its time, however everything else falls kind of flat. The lyrics and vocals are hard to make out for most of the record. Favorite Track: Summertime Blues Least Favorite Track: Second Time Around

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

This is easily the lowest quality recording so far on this list. Can't say I'm enjoying it too much. Very raw? But I don't think it sounds good or that they're doing anything special.. No need to listen again.

Don’t think I’d listen to this album today (I can state that with 100% confidence...). The band runs out of original tricks rather too quickly. However, I can totally see me listening to it at the time it was released and thinking how new, original, and full of tricks this album is.

2/5. Fun jams and musicianship but some of the songs are longer than necessary. Summertime blues and second time around are the highlights. The others are okay.

Blue Cheer er aldeilis hressilegt band. Mjög rokkaður blús og alveg hægt að finna element sem síðar hafa verið skilgreind sem þungarokk. Áhugavert m.v. ártal útgáfu. Mæli með.

This is one of those albums/bands that fell in the cracks between other blues/rock bands of the time. They would have made more of an impact if they had been able to write some songs that sounded a little different from each other. They also shouldn't have relied solely on distorted guitars and screaming vocals.

Kovin turha levy ja unohdin kuunnella viimeiset 8min. Olisi kiva tietää miksi tämä(kin) levy on päätynyt tällaiselle listalle.

Aito tykitys

Not as Psychedelic as I was hoping

The whole album isn’t on a Spotify so I had to listen to a YouTube version where it was one long song. Pretty good 70’s rock

A cool mix of bluesy and hard rock! Some great guitar work and good vocals

It was fine. You can hear where some later heavier bands got some influence from this new style which was cool. Maybe if I heard this in 1968 I would have had my mind blown but it just felt like a more barebones version of newer metal and heavy rock.

If you like unnecessary guitar noise, this album is for you!

Pretty good, reminds me of magic carpet ride and some other late 60s rocks.

In music, there's never a true "First" anything. So while there are plenty of people claiming this is The First Heavy Metal album, there are plenty of other albums that could also lay claim to the title. However, there's no denying that Blue Cheer's cover of Eddie Cochrane's Summertime Blues has something that not many other people were doing in 1968! Doctor Please does some interesting things musically if not lyrically, and Second Time Around has an almost Stooges-like sound to it at times. Not one I'll be bopping along to, but an interesting historical curiosity!

A lot of banda from this era making a similar sound but much better

Absolutely awful, all the bad bits of Janis Joplins band - self indulgent, noisey, hectic, over elaborate, pretensious. Can see how it was influential though just basically unpleasant. I'd give it 1.5 but I can't so I'm rounding down to be dramatic. 1 star BAAAD

Epic album. Amazing sound by a super talented band

initially i was like “men yelling over weird guitars. 2” but then i found out they were one of the first to do it in this way?

I was introduced to this album a while back, and it seemed more impressive then. I get that it's "groundbreaking" or whatever, but does it sound good?

Too boring not to be accessible through Spotify.

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.

New to me, good listen.

Pretty wild that this came out in '68. I can hear a lot of sounds that wouldn't be prevalent for years afterwards. This is a really cool mix of psych rock, proto-metal and blues. Dig it!

A decent rock album from the 60s. Summertime blues is a good song, heard it before, and felt like it was the focal point of the album. I didn’t see how this was the invention of metal music as it didn’t seem that hardcore and not nearly as sinister as Black Sabbath. Also the instrumentals weren’t anymore intense than some other bands in the 60s. But for an album overall it was fine. There was better music made that decade for sure. 5.9/10

I suspect this album is here mostly because of 'Summertime Blues', so I'm not so sure this was an album that I had to hear, as much as a song. In general, I dig the distorted blues rock vibe with gravelly vocals. Unfortunately, it's really hard to get over the poor audio quality; it's like they just put a mic in the middle of their garage and hit the record button. As such, I can't really get into the album all that much.

This rules

Cool late 60’s fuzzy guitar sound

This album sounds like proto Black Sabbath with a bit of Cream and Jimi Hendrix mixed in. It is widely considered to be an important hard rock and early heavy metal album. To me, it sounds rough and unfinished. The guitar playing is sloppy and the guitarist is clearly listening to Hendrix but is unable to execute the style well. Regardless, the album is interesting because it is a transition work even if it’s execution leaves a lot to be desired.

Abans que Sabbath o Purple. Això sí és protometal en tota la seva intensitat. Blues Rock pesat i improvisat avançant les formes del rock dur dels 70 en plena época hippie. L'únic problema és que ells no tenien les cançons. Tan potent és l'actitud com millorable el contingut

4.1 - I hear danger in the wildly overamped guitar that constantly sounds like it could spill over at any moment into peals of terrible feedback. Leigh Stephens seems to push that guitar to its groaning/squealing edge. It's impossible to not hear the through-line between this record and Black Sabbath's debut. I also hear inspiration drawn from Hendrix and his guitar wizardry. Standout: "Doctor Please" (particularly the guitar breakdown in the last couple of minutes).

I liked some of the guitar, but otherwise it was pretty forgettable.

Pretty good.

pretty good, i liked the vibe and it had a cool groove

Interesting but a little tough to listen to.

Fun look at the earliest of hard rock. Screaming guitars. Ahead of its time.

Meh, very 60s

Hold higher standards for rock. It sounds dated and because of that a high 1 star

an interesting inclusion in this project! it’s got a pre-heavy metal sound laced with that sixties pop. drums and guitar were super heavy. the music is not close to eighties’ heavy metal but i can hear the groundwork blue cheer set in ‘68. this album isn’t awful but just fine? i’m impressed as far as their influence but it’s not super enjoyable overall.

Was this listenable? Sure. Was it great? Nah. From a music history standpoint, it's cool to hear a band who is regarded as a progenitor of a genre, in this case heavy metal. But even though they had part in creating it, they definitely didn't perfect it. They definitely put the proto- in proto-metal. But hey, I guess they walked so bands like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and Pantera could run.

Good listen.

Turgid

Clearly groundbreaking for the time. Okay for now.

This album has all the elements of the type of album I should love but I hated it.

Felt like standard 60s rock music. Yet another completely average album. First song wasn’t bad

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!

Interesting fuzzy raw blues rock? Kind of sounds like Cream but rougher around the edges. It wanders a bit but I was kind of into it.

Enjoyable in a Cream/Allman Brothers vein.

Ehhhhhh?

One of a clutch of artists, amongst whom number Vanilla Fudge, Cream and Iron Butterfly, who were all groping towards the sound that Black Sabbath would perfect - heavy metal. File this one under proto-metal. To modern ears, this sounds like a mess, quite frankly, and in indulgent one at that. It's as if the thundering ramalama of it all would compensate for a lack of craft or technique. And , hey, perhaps it did. Maybe back in 1968 if you were suitably, ah, 'chemically refreshed', Blue Cheer would've sounded great. I'm afraid that the average white-sock kombucha-sipping asshole won't ever be able to tune into the frequencies required to fully appreciate this heavy-psych mindquest. Well, call me an asshole too, because whilst I'm appreciative of the role in music history this played (doesn't 'Summertime Blues' sound like Acid Bath?), Vincebus Eruptum sounds like what it is; a very 'eavy, very 'umble museum piece.

Mannnn… so I’m alone in liking this one?? Oh well. I guess you guys won’t be joining my Blue Cheer fan club, which will be known as the Cheerleaders. You know you know want the semi-annual newsletter and free iron-on, dudes! Come on! Okay. Yes, this is a museum piece and yes this is proto-grunge and yes the last track is almost indefensibly indulgent. The whole thing just kind of sounds like crap. No argument. But it sounds like specific crap. And the crap I’m talking about specifically is Kyuss and the whole desert rock scene of the 90s. I like Kyuss and love a heck of a lot of Queens of the Stone Age tunes. I swear to God if you lopped off “Summertime Blues” and gave me a blank CD-R of this Blue Cheer album but told me it was an unreleased Kyuss demo I would 100% believe you. It sounds that close at times to me, especially with some of the lead guitar sounds. And in fact, I actually prefer the Blue Cheer vocals here to what John Garcia did on most Kyuss tracks. So, in some ways it’s superior. Genuinely liked it guys. Don’t know what else to say. Shawn Harwell Head Cheerleader

Outside of the opening track there isn’t much to like here. I will say Summertime Blues is a pretty spectacular track.

This was pretty cool.

Not super my thing tbh. I don't really care for the late 60's heavy metal beginnings.

Fine as an album. Didn't pay much attention to it.

I like their sound, but the covers were poorly executed. Summertime Blues is not a psychedelic song. Best track: Doctor Please

Rocks hard. I like it

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

7/10. Enjoyable, but not a standout

I enjoyed the guitar noodling. 7/10

First impression: Sounds like Hendrix...second impression: sounds like the Who. So, they get a zero for originality. LOL. The music was nice though. I'm not a fan of cover songs, and the first two songs right off the bat are covers... The original stuff on the album is fine, but nothing special to me.

Too jammy, but props for keeping the energy high.

Some of the heaviest, most unhinged rock you could hope to hear from its era. Blue Cheer were sort of at the vanguard of the turn towards a heavier, more primal rock sound for what must have been a matter of months before MC5 finally got their sound down on record to kick it up a notch. Hendrix and Cream presaged them of course, and Zeppelin also fits in there somewhere as well, but I'd argue what those bands were doing was a little more sophisticated. This sounds distinctly looser, and as such, is a ripping good time. The ultimate garage band.

Pretty impressed. I was excepting some Beatles knock-off, but it's basically like every song is Helter Skelter. I see the influence on metal and hard psych for sure.

An ur-text for stoner rock. Deliberately dumb as a sack of rocks and just as heavy.

Super fuzzy, psychedelic, blues rock. Yeah, this is my jam. This is what this project is about for me: discovering the bands and albums that had huge influence, even if they weren't that commercial successful themselves.

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.

Some early metal. Interesting to listen to I guess, but not hugely exciting

Heavy. The closest I've heard to someone channeling Jimi Hendrix. Definitely on the leading edge of heavy, blues-based metal. 3 stars.

I started this one off and heard the already-familiar version of Summertime Blues, and thought, this might well be fun. However, by four songs in, it all started sounding the same: screaming guitar and wailing vocal. I must admit I drifted off and then started being mildly irritated by the incessant noise. I can see what they were trying to do and appreciate that they probably did a lot of it first, but they should have stopped after Summertime.

En saa tätä julkaisua skulaamaan mistään mutta biisit on ihan jees ajoo… 2/5

Olihan aikas jees. Siistejä riffittelyjä.

Jytiseehän se! Pitää ehkä kuunnella vielä uudestaan, mutta varovaisen positiivinen viba jäi. Annetaan nyt 3/5, ehkä myöhemmin voisi nousta neloseen.

Blue Boo. I guess you had to be there.

blue cheer sounds like a frat party experiment gone wrong, and so does this record

I can tell that there is so much here that inspired some of the best music (sabbath, Grateful Dead, zeppelin, etc) but I just do t care for how this sounds.

REally nice album. 4 stars

Didn't really enjoy much about this.

When psychedelic rock goes on the extreme end into the hard blues of acid rock we saw of Cream and Joplin's Big Brother, it starts to take the form of proto-heavy metal. The songs hit really hard, like rockabilly taking LSD and going real crazy. It's not known for its songwriting, but with songs unmatched in distortion and intensity, it stands as one of the most influential albums in the vast genre of metal. The groove sounds a lot like 90s doom metal, and thus I could see the connection with Black Sabbath.

Solid blues

I did not enjoy this but I also did not hate it

I saw a lot of reviews calling this one of the first heavy metal records and like... I guess. Props to it for being influential but a lot of it is just quite sloppy blues. This really puts into perspective how much of a genre-defining sonic change something like Black Sabbath was just the year after

Recording quality is pretty horrible and detracts from the overall album. Guitar is dialed way up, and gets repetitive. Originally marked it as 2 stars, not very enjoyable album overall. Dropping it to 1 star as I'm not going to finish this album. Terrible.

too much of everything

Cream-y. Hendrix-y. Under-appreciated

Mid

Kuulee kyllä mistä iggy, ramonet, motörhead jne on saaneet vaikutteita. Paikoin kiinnostavaa muttei erityisen mieleenpainuvaa

Naw. Proto heavy metal. I can see why it’s here, but I can’t dig it too much.

Disappointingly unfocused blues rock. It has the power and riffage, but not enough melody or song structure. I can see how it influenced the heavy rock to come.

Very so-so for me; not much remarkable, but I probably wouldn't skip it if it came up on a random play. I generally like bluesy-rock like this, but the way Blue Cheer puts it together is just not my favorite.

not bad but sort of boring

Some gnarly, noisy blues for its time. Probably not something I would return to but can definitely appreciate how influential this must've been.

This is what I always imagined garage rock sounding like- a bunch of kids just learning to shred with the murkiest sound on earth. Forget that overpolished White Stripes and Strokes nonsense. It’s very primitive, and I assume it won’t be a lot of people’s thing, but I do like the protometal sound and I have fun with this. But I can’t really rate it higher than a C+, although I think that I’ll give it four stars to round out.

-A pretty good example of late-60s psych rock, and arguably one of the earliest heavy metal albums, though it doesn't bear much resemblance to what the term would come to mean. -It's loud, it's messy, and copious amounts of acid were involved in making this album; what more could you want? -It does feel pretty dated at times though, and aside from the Summertime Blues cover, lacks a big hook.

I remember getting this shoved in my face as something “heavier and earlier” than Sabbath as if either of those things calculated in my love for the group. About a decade and a half later (almost two decades? fuck), I’m here to give Blue Cheer another whirl. I’ll admit I wasn’t impressed then, but I’m curious to try again. OK. This is fine, but BC lacks the foresight and compositional skills to tighten this up into something worth revisiting. It’s very cool from a time/place perspective, I’d dig this stuff on a mix with Mountain and Jimi and the ilk, but as a standalone album I’m not too stoked on it. Aside from the fun opening cover, the SF psych standard “Out of Focus,” and the jammy closer, it’s pretty uneventful and at times uninspired. “Doctor Please” has all the ingredients but gets pretty bloated by the end and “Parchment Farm” similarly suffers from a lack of direction and satisfying resolution. I imagine they get better as time goes on, but for this specific kind of stuff I think I’d rather cover my eyes and pick from any current up-and-coming psych rock bands? 2.5

Very heavy for '66. Couple interesting covers, but fun guitar work. Heavy Jimi vibes.

Pega os Beatles com 18 anos e o Jimi Handrix com 15, da nisso ai. Uma guitarrinha animada com uma voz de boyband 60tista.

roque e metade das músicas indisponíveis meh

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

A lot better than I expected, the link between Cream and Black Sabbath is really obvious here. Fuzzy, jammy, rocky music with some really interesting riffs. Sure it's a bit rough around the edges but for a debut, pretty solid.

So boring I didn’t remember a single song lol

Shambolic self-indulgent nonsense… couldn’t wait for this to finish!

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.

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.

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.

This was chaotic, and not in a good way. Didn't like it.

Very interested. Ground breaking.

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

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

Best Song: Second Time Around. Good drum solo near the end. Worst Song: Doctor Please. Not terrible, but it just felt like a jam session that wasn't particularly interesting relative to any other. Overall: An altogether "alright" proto-metal album that seems to be on the list for reasons relating to legacy, rather than the overwhelming quality of the music. Also, the stereo-mixing is strange, and had me wondering whether my headphones were broken for half the album.

Not really metal as such but still enjoyable. Great cover of Summertime Blues.

A naporno bajo moj. Nije mi se dalo cijelo poslusat.

Okej, ništa posebno, već se ovakvih izvođača čulo više puta, tj albuma. Ništa previše očaran u ono što sam čuo.

Album of covers but enjoyable enough.

Not great. Some bang average covers here.

This just didn't agree with me... I should've enjoyed it due to the style but it's all a bit too messy due to the copious drug usage I'd assume.

Some good songs but a bad audio quality.

“A howling mess.”

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.

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.

They sound a bit like Hendrix, with the guitar tuned down to give it a heavier sound. I appreciate the fact that this is proto metal and they would/could have influenced the sound bands like Zeppelin or Deep Purple. That said, the longer instrumental pieces are less inspired and technically inferior to their heirs.

Wiki informs me that Vincebus Eruptum means "Controlled chaos" in Latin. I also see that the band is a trio with only one guitarist but it sounded like a dozen guitars to me. The album sounds like it was recorded in someone's basement with no production values and with the mics buried deep in the Marshall amps. I must give it a knowing nod though, the thunderous blues guitar signals some pretty epic sounding proto-metal. Many have mentioned that they hear Black Sabbath and Cream , but I also hear Deep Purple which was formed around the same time. So despite the crudeness of the recording I'll bump my rating up to a 3 because of its provenance and influence on things to come.

Only partially available

yuck wasnt remastered so it sounds tinny and terrible

Father of garage rock?

Not available fully in my Spotify, unfortunately. Nothing too special, pretty much standard bluesy stuff except for being ultra dirty and garage. That's what I liked about it.

5/10

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.

Some of the track listings have been lost to time on Spotify. Sad. Upside though, I love an overdriven el34 coupled with a fuzz face. There is something so limitless to the sound of this era. Pure tube goodness and the simple pleasures of free and easy songwriting. This one was all about the vintage amp sound for me. I'm a valve tragic!

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

Simply terrible

So hard core when first heard now it’s just a look back to a mix of head banging rock 🤘 heavy metal 🎸 & crazy base!!!

Speedrun: getting bored of '60s psychedelia, any% glitchless. Is this bad? No. Is it as good or interesting as the big psych rock classics of its time? Also no. Does it need to be on this list? No. Favorite tracks: Out of Focus, Rock Me Baby. Album art: That classic '60s counterculture bubble font, whole thing is in purple (Deep Purple easter egg?). Pretty boring, I'll forget this one quickly. 2.5/5

A difficult and tedious listen. I actually considered doing the hoovering as a more pleasing alternative.

Fun for a few minutes. Got old fast.

Solid heavy metal

Solid album.

There were some songs I had heard by other groups but this was fairly meh.

Slightly puzzled that this one made the cut. It's OK, with a heavy 60s R&B vibe but nothing that made it stand out for me.

I was not familiar with any of the songs but it definitely sounds like 60s rock.