Call it whatever you want: a lost German hard rock underground classic, a label attempt to cash in on a scene, or simply a way for Ken Hensley to fill his back account in between Uriah Heep albums and tours (I’m partial to that last one)…Weed the band and Weed…! the album is still a fun obscure rocker that benefits from being a one and done deal: there were already enough bands – like Heep – doing this better, and my enjoyment of the album really stems from Hensley’s involvement and how this compares to his writing and performance on Look at Yourself which would follow soon after. Still, it has moments of that early hard rock with shades of progressive and psychedelia that I go crazy for, so if that’s your bag as well this is an album worth tracking down.

A few second into the opening track “Sweet Morning Light” and you can immediately hear the similarities to what Uriah Heep were dishing out. Prominent organ, interesting baseline that doesn’t keep to the guitar or the drum beat, and Hensley’s voice giving a great bluesy rock and roll grit to the track. The rest of the band were comprised of a german band called Virus as well as drummer Peet Becker, who was a rising star in the German rock scene at the time. But by most accounts Hensley wrote the songs, sang them, and provided the majority of guitars as well as keyboards. This is something he had done earlier with an earlier band called The Head Machine and their album Orgasm in 1969. Putting intent and authorship aside, it’s hard not to fall into how deep and dark the music gets here. From the stomp of “Sweet Morning Light” it moves to the acoustic “Lonely Ship” with harmonized falsetto vocals and some beautiful acoustic playing nicely speed across the soundstage.

Production credits are nonexistent on the CD reissue from a company called Mig, but sonically the release is really strong, not mastered to be non-dynamic and keep a great separation of the instruments. After the great 1-2 punch things unfortunately slow down a bit with the bloated “My Dream” which opens with about three minutes of solo piano, washed to at first but slowly over the time coming to more and more prominence before blasting into an organ riff and four on the floor drumming. I wish that stomp were more effective, though; the song is encumbered with tired vocals and a guitar solo that’s…adequate I guess? Nothing to write home about. “Slowin’ Down” doesn’t fare much better: it’s a standard blues boogie with some admittedly sharp slide playing in its opening solo, but this is one type of rock that even by 1971 has been beaten to death with overuse. Too bad, because I dig the effects on the vocals.

But this is the double-edged sword of a project like Weed. They’re doing everything you’d want from a “classic rock” (I’m using the term as a catch-all generic label here) album, but not bringing any truly memorable outside of the two opening track, which I really love. “Before I Die” brings some of the late 60s pop and psychedelia into its arrangement, and for me it works better than either of the two previous tracks, even if it loses some of the rock momentum. That momentum is regained with the final title track, which finally brings back a sense of scale and ambition to Weed…! and showing a little of that progressive molten rock Heep were just beginning to fully realize. At over seven minutes it’s also the longest track on the album, almost as if the label knew they needed to ned on a high note if folks were going to remember it enough to make it a hit. The fact that it’s an instrumental doesn’t hurt none, either.

There you have it. Weed. There may be other strains you prefer, but this manages to get the job done.