Arktis - On The Rocks (1976)

"It is the year 1976, and Arktis is dead!...or not? No, Arktis is still alive! First of all we had to digest the departure of Klaus Blachut and Klaus Göllner, do you remember? And then there was the question how to go on. Karin and Harry sat together making plans to continue the success story of Arktis without their guitarist and bassist. Harry recalled the time before Arktis existed and he remembered Manni with whom he had sessioned for some time and who might look for an engagement. He asked Manni, Manni was looking for an engagement and joined on guitar. Two other musicians could be found, and off we went...Apart from these necessary personnel changes we decided to use new techniques planning to record a new album which should be a direct musical follow-up to out debut album. Supported again by Conny Plank who had produced several of Arktis' songs in the past we are proud to present the song material of our third album of which all participants think it's our best. A Hammond organ for example was added to all songs on the LP. We also took much more time in the studio than before as can be valued by the songs' compact structures. Their psychedelic and underground feeling is influenced by our new guitarist Manni whose idols are Cream and Hendrix. While doing her vocal parts Karin did not think of the studio but emotions, blue spirit. All other band members submitted, fine...Last but not least we'd like to point out that once more we succeeded in performing a twenty minute song which was tough work ... We hope with this album to meet our fans' demand and hereby pronounce that we have already started working on album number four..." (Liner Notes)
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"Enchanting 70s' heavy metal from Germany. On the Rocks was recorded in 1976. Although featuring simple melodies and not straight progressive metal with complex arrangements, such as, say, Rush, Arktis' sound is interesting for two reasons.

The first reason is that their powerful guitar playing sounds Iron Maiden-esque for a mid 70s band and catches the attention at once. The second reason is that the voice of Karin is both very powerful and enchanting and sounds androgynous, which give the tracks a feel of fairy-tales. The highlight here is Loneliness, a beautiful powerful epic lasting 20 minutes. The tune is both heavy blues and melancholic passages in the vein of Pink Floyd. The doomy bonus track Y.T.T is reminiscent of Black Sabbath and really rocks !

Arktis's On the Rocks is an album which with you can easily imagine knights fighting on the landscape drawn on the cover while listening to the music. It's a pity they only made a few albums. Very enjoyable and accessible album. To all heavy and progressive metal lovers!" (Modrigue, progarchives.com)

1. Dangerous Love (4:31)
2. Since You've Been Gone (5:35)
3. Never Come Back (5:00)
4. Please, Call Me (5:26)
5. Loneliness (20:01)
Bonus track:
6. Y.T.T. (5:57)

Karin Toppig / vocals
Harry Kottek / drums
Manni Dick / guitar
Axel Maurer / keyboards
Bernd Kolf / bass

EAC-FLAC-LOG-CUE-SCANS 348 MB

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