Rampant 1974

"Hard rock as papa used to make it, "Rampant" takes you on a trip through metal music in one of its earliest incarnations. Drawing on heavy blues rock, boogie woogie rock, melancholic minimalistic ballad blues, more lighthearted uptempo rock and mildly psychedelic stoner rock "Rampant" is far from a monotonous and repetitive musical experience, and - especially, if you like blues rock - should appeal to fans of proto-metal and hardrock, as well as those who are interested in hearing some of the music that metal grew out of.

Notable tracks are the aggressive "Silver Dollar Forger", the lighthearted blues rocker "Glad When You're Gone" and the heavy blues ballad "Loved and Lost" as well as the blues boogie rockers Shanghai'd in Shanghai" and "Jet Lag".

The distorted guitars have a very dirty sound, while the bass provides a broad and fat backdrop, and the vocals are slightly Ian Gillan-esque.

Not Nazareth's best album, but certainly a solid collection of hard rocking boogie and blues rock.

(review originally written for metalmusicarchives.com)"