Armageddon (Armageddon album)

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Armageddon

Studio album by Armageddon
Released	1975

Armageddon was the only album released by American/British hard rock group Armageddon in 1975. It features Keith Relf of Yardbirds and Renaissance fame, Martin Pugh who played lead guitar on The Rod Stewart Album and with Steamhammer, Bobby Caldwell who was the drummer of Captain Beyond and with Johnny Winter, and Louis Cennamo who was the bass player for Renaissance and Steamhammer. Armageddon joined its skills and imaginations to generate a music that is at once highly sophisticated, tangibly moody, and breathlessly intense. They had sought after to create a style unlike any other in rock, and one listening will demonstrate how dramatically they had succeeded.

Armageddon was the last decisive battle for ex-Yardbird Keith Relf. The former lead singer and harmonica player of the band that launched Clapton, Beck and Page, Relf had abandon his blues-guitar band roots when he founded Renaissance in the late 1960s. Relf left Renaissance after two albums (actually half way through the second album) due to frustrations with the music business and being tired of touring. However, when he created Armageddon, he was involved with one of the best guitar rock albums of the 70's.

After the dissolution of Steamhammer, Relf, and ex-Steamhammer members, Martin Pugh (guitar) and Louis Cennamo (bass) came to L.A. and hooked up with ex-Captain Beyond and Johnny Winter drummer Bobby Caldwell to form Armageddon. Armageddon combined the complex drum patterns of Caldwell, with Pugh's heavy and stylistic riffing and Relf's insightful and searching lyrics to create a haunting and enduring piece of heavy rock.

Criticized as sounding "dated" when initially released, this is one of the strong points of this album. Many of the best hard rock acts of the time (Purple-Stormbringer, Zeppelin-Presence, Sabbath-Sabotage, etc) were moving on to slicker production of less gritty songs. Armageddon sounded like it was from an earlier and more "real" musical time.

The opening song "Buzzard" is usually listed by fans as the highlight of the album. Borrowing a riff from Steamhammer's "Penumbra," Pugh's guitar soars with speed, control and precision, while Relf's intelligent lyrics rap around the crashing, thunderous drums of Caldwell. It is an exhilarating eight minute flight worth taking over and over again.

While "Buzzard" is one of the album's highlights, it is by no means the sole reason to own this disc. Other particularly strong moments include: the beautiful and stylish "Silver Tightrope," which features an echoing guitar and more contemplative lyrics from Relf, and "Last Stand Before" a Zeppelinesque (Physical Graffiti era) rocker with descriptive and prophetic lyrics. In this one Relf sings "Lost a friend, met his end, way before his time" and "my brother's falling catch him if I can. I see him falling you can join him in his last stand," it makes one wonder if Keith was aware of his own fate.

It's too bad that this proved to be the last stand for Relf and Armageddon. Relf returned to England due to poor health shortly after this was released. Relf's health and reported drug use among some of the band lead to Armageddon failing to release any more material. Relf died shortly after returning to England, when he was electrocuted while playing guitar. He did record one more song "All the Falling Angels" that is included on an album by Illusion called Echanted Caress. (Illusion was the name the original members of Renaissance chose when they reunited. This was because Anne Haslem and her crew had become Renaissance).

Oddly enough, this album may never have gotten made if it wasn't for the succes of Peter Framptom's Comes Alive. According to the cd booklet, Framptom recommended Armageddon to A&M Records, and because he was their top selling artist at the time, they listened to him. Armageddon remains a classic heavy rock album that is still worth hearing. Armageddon remains a powerful reminder of what artists were able to do when they were given the creative control to explore.