Roots of Heavy Metal Vol. 3: Incredible Hog

If you ask any aficionado of heavy and arcane tuneage to rattle off a list of the burliest and best sounds to come out of Britain in the early '70s, the words Incredible Hog are bound to fall from their lips.

The London-based power trio only managed to shoot out one LP in their time of existence - the optimistically titled Volume One - but the legend they left behind with that sole effort wields more weight than most bands' multi-album catalogs.

Formed in 1972 out of the ashes of the band Speed Auction, Incredible Hog was made up of Ken Gordon (guitar/vocals) Jim Holmes (bass) and Tony Awin (drums). The trio was taking in all that was to be offered musically in London at the time. Everything from the British blues boom to the just emerging sounds of progressive rock was all grist for their hefty brand of brew. Although they seemed to be a self-sustaining entity booking their own shows in their own night club titled The Pig Sty, they were determined to get a label to release their debut LP. The unknown Dart label stepped into the picture to release Volume One in the middle of 1973. Even though the record was thunderous from start to finish, the lack of funds Dart had to promote it made it fall into the cracks. Crestfallen over the situation, the band split up by the end of '73.

Somewhere in the last twenty years, the record started to be championed by record collectors and dealers. A few dubious re-issues were passed off until Lee Dorian, vocalist for the mighty Cathedral, did up an amazing looking and sounding re-up of the disc last year on his impeccable Rise Above record label. The band has even reformed playing some gigs in their home country performing with like-minded present day units such as Gentlemen's Pistols. Could a 'Volume Two' be in the works? We can only hope.

For now, check out the choicest cuts from Volume One, below:

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