Attila - Attila (1970)

Hard rock and metal were hot in 1970, and spurred by the groundbreaking success of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and a rejuvenated Deep Purple, there were a bunch of heavy new bands that were trying to follow in their success. This included a struggling singer-songwriter from Long Island named Billy Joel, who swapped his classical piano for a Hammond B-3 organ and formed the short-lived proto-metal duo Attila with drummer John Small. The two young musicians had been playing together since 1967 in local psychedelic group the Hassles, but after a pair of unsuccessful albums, Joel and Small reinvented themselves in 1969, overcoming their lack of a metal staple, the electric guitar, by plugging Joel’s organ into a Marshall stack and loading it with distortion. Joel also handled bass and vocals, and they managed to get a record deal with Epic Records to record an album. They picked some of their most forceful songs, such as 'Wonder Woman', 'Revenge is Sweet', and 'Brain Invasion', all boasting frantic keyboard work and histrionic vocals by Joel. They also had less metal songs like 'Rollin' Home', and even an eight-minute jazz-rock-tinged instrumental 'Amplifier Fire', spread over two parts subtitled 'Godzilla' and 'March of the Huns'. The album cover was the final touch, with Joel and Small transformed into barbarian invaders, and this all proved to be too much for some AllMusic critics, who selected 'Attila' as one of the worst rock albums of all time. Joel himself has gone on record as describing the album as 'psychedelic bullshit', but it's very much a record of it's time, and there is some good music to be heard on here, as well as being an interesting diversion for Joel before settling down to the singer/songwriter career that we know him for. Although this album does exist, it's extremely hard to track down, so I'm sharing it here for people who might not have known about this early aberration from one of their favourite artists. 

Track listing

01 Wonder Woman
02 California Flash
03 Revenge Is Sweet
04 Amplifier Fire (Part I: Godzilla/Part II: March Of The Huns)
05 Rollin' Home
06 Tear This Castle Down
07 Holy Moses
08 Brain Invasion