Nazareth: (1973) Razamanaz

After pursuing a Rolling Stones-styled blend of rock and country elements on their first two albums, Nazareth segued into a harder rocking style with 1973's Razamanaz. The resulting album has a lot of energy and drive and much of this can be credited to Roger Glover's production, which tempers the group's tendency to experiment with different musical styles by imposing an overall sound that play's up the group's hard rock edge. The end result is an album that rocks consistently throughout but works in intriguing musical elements to keep things interesting. For instance, "Alcatraz" and "Night Woman" work a glam-styled tribal drum rhythm into the group's sound, and "Vigilante Man" starts out as a straight blues tune but soon mutates into a stomping slice of heavy metal. The most successful experiments come when the group works a country element into their rock attack: "Broken Down Angel" sounds like an early 1970s Rolling Stones track with heavier guitars, and "Bad Bad Boy" sounds like an old rockabilly tune as played by a 1970s hard rock band. Both tunes cleverly mix some effective pop hooks into their stew of hard rock and country elements and became hit singles in England as a result. Other Razamanaz highlights include the title track, a furious rocker that became a permanent part of the band's live set list, and "Woke Up This Morning," a heavy blues tune with darkly comic lyrics about a man with terminally bad luck. To sum up, Razamanaz is one of the finest albums in the Nazareth catalog and a gem of 1970s hard rock in general. ~~ Donald A. Guarisco

Tracks
1.Razamanaz
2.Alcatraz
3.Vigilante Man
4.Woke Up This Morning
5.Night Woman
6.Bad Bad Boy
7.Sold My Soul
8.Too Bad Too Sad
9.Broken Down Angel
10.Hard Living
11.Spinning Top
12.Woke Up This Morning (Alternate Version)
13.Witchdoctor Woman

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Nazareth: (1971) Nazareth

Nazareth enjoyed phenomenal success during the 1970s, when they purveyed a brand of no-nonsense hard rock characterized by the grity vocals of Dan McCafferty, pitched against a tough selection of musical backdrops. Such was their hard-won following that they survived the punk years (albeit more strongly in territories outside the UK) and continue to record and tour regularly today.
Nazareth's roots date as far back as 1966, when Dan McCafferty (vocals) and Pete Agnew (bass) formed The Shadettes in the small town of Dunfermline, Scotland. Like many of their contemporaries, their set consisted of renditions of then popular songs, and they played small clubs and bars on the Scottish circuit. The Beat boom was just tailing off by then, and finding themselves in competition with many other bands; they struggled to make any real impact. After years of frustration, the band contemplated splitting up. They then teamed up with a local guitar player Manuel Charlton, in an attempt to break out to a higher level, and 'Manny', as he was known, was to become the catalyst that led to Nazareth coming together and finding a direction that would lead to greater things.
Interestingly Manny had already garnered some recording experience with 'The Mark IV' and the 'Redhawks'. This studio experience and Manny's interest in everything technical was to prove invaluable in years to come as he went on to produce many of their most successful albums.

Tracks
1.Witchdoctor Woman
2.Dear John
3.Empty Arms
4.I Had A Dream
5.Red Light Lady
6.Fat Man
7.Country Girl
8.Morning Drew
9.The King is Dead
10.Friends (B-Side)
11.Spinning Top (Edit Alt. Take)
12.Dear John (Edit Alt. Take)
13.Morning Dew (Edit Alt. Take)
14.Friends (Edit Alt. Take)

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