Tarkus - Tarkus

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Ever since I saw this band on the archives I was intrigued. Peru is one of the last countries you would expect to have a true metal band in the beginning of the seventies. Not just some hard rock band with a few metallic riffs here and there, but real metal. There are only two songs on the album that’s too soft and lack the proper riffs to be metal, but other than that it’s hard and heavy riffs the whole way. You could easily pass this off as a hard rockish heavy metal record from 1982 rather than something from 1972. Of course there is a very strong seventies feel to the music, but a lot of early traditional metal albums from the eighties had that.

The riffs are heavy as fuck for its time and clearly inspired by the metal pioneers Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. There were other bands with metal releases at the time such as Flower Travellin' Band, Sir Lord Baltimore and Lucifer's Friend, but these bands might have been too obscure to influence these Peruvians (but then again, these are no ordinary Peruvians) and Tarkus defiantly don’t have the progressive/psychedelic elements of Flower Travellin' Band and Lucifer's Friend. I get some very strong Deep Purple vibes form Tarkus and I think they are with out doubt the biggest influence. The vocals are high-pitched and thin, but it works. Some might not like them, but to me it adds to the charm and they fit the Spanish lyrics. As far as the drumming goes, it’s ok. I’m no expert, but they don’t stand out in any way for me.

I remember reading complaints about the production of this album on some forum, but I don’t think you can demand too much from a Peruvian band from the early seventies. The production is better than some eighties records that I have heard, but there is the possibility that my mp3s was ripped from the 2007 re-release. When I was looking for the album I found out that the original cost ridiculous amounts of money and was rare as hell. I just found it on some blog with a link to a downloading site. I have no idea on how hard it is to obtain the re-release, but unless you’re rich, you should just download this rather than tracking down the original. Tarkus may be too obscure to have any influence on the evolution of metal, but you should check them out if you like old school heavy metal.

Nice review dude, thank you.