(Heavy Blues Rock / Hard Rock) Toad - Toad - 1971, FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

Swiss hard rock and blues-rock outfit Toad leaped (sorry) onto their country's charts with their debut single, "Stay," in 1972 -- paving the way for the massive Swiss metal movement of the early '80s and such notable bands as Krokus and Celtic Frost. Mainly a three-piece, consisting of Vittorio "Vic" Vergeat (guitar/vocals), Werner Frohlich (bass), and Cosimo Lampis (drums), Toad often enlisted the help of an additional lead vocalist in much of their studio work (Bens Jaeger sang lead on their debut, but departed the group as soon as recording was completed). That same year, the live album Open Fire: Live in Basel 1972 hit stores, taking advantage of the band's constant and successful touring. Tomorrow Blue followed shortly after, appearing in 1973, and the band released Dreams early in 1974. A few live albums, compilations, and studio works continued to trickle out during the rest of the '70s and early '80s, with the core Toad lineup still firmly in place. By the early 2000s, interest in the early European hard rock scene in general (and Toad in particular) led to a slew of deluxe CD reissues and collections -- the best of which were to be found on the Italian imprint Akarma.

Toad's self-titled debut album may have, single-handedly, kicked off the entire Swiss hard rock movement in the '70s. Their first single, "Stay." made a great deal of headway on the Swiss charts -- a feat that no other hard rock band had ever accomplished in that country. Essentially a power trio consisting of Vittorio "Vic" Vergeat (guitar/vocals), Werner Frohlich (bass) and Cosimo Lampis (drums), Toad enlisted the help of vocalist Bens Jaeger for this (and only this) album. Heavily blues-based rock (à la Cream/Black Sabbath) was the major force behind Toad's hard driving sound, with bassist Frohlich providing a mean (and meanderingly gutsy) counterpoint to Vergeat's loose and greasy guitar licks. The record also has moments of Deep Purple-like propulsion, no doubt thanks to that band's engineer Martin Birch, who manned the controls on this one as well. Like most of the B-list (sometimes C-list) rock groups that Italian imprint Akarma has reissued throughout the early 2000s, Toad's debut was mainly a collector's object in its LP form. There were better bands out there, doing the same sort of thing, but, chances are, those records were already on the shelves of most die-hard collectors. Albums like Toad may have enjoyed regional success in their time, but were largely forgotten or relegated to "closet classic" status (if they were remembered at all). These types of records have been fetching higher and higher prices over the years and it's darn good to see a reissue label dipping into this pool of underappreciated groups. In fact, if you have an appetite for this sort of thing, Akarma's reissue lineup really can't be beat -- plus, they'll save you from getting all that funky record-sleeve-mold on your fingers while you spend months searching for the (rare, rare, rare) original vinyl editions.