Primitive Origins is a column where we’ll look back at proto-metal and early metal that deserves a bit of your battered eardrums’ attention. We’re keeping it loose and easy here: there’s no strict guidelines other than it’s gotta be old, it helps if it’s obscure, and it’s gotta rock out surprisingly hard for its context. Pscyh-ed out proto-metal from the late ’60s? Of course. Early attempts at doom metal from the ’70s? Hell yeah. Underground Soviet metal from the early ’80s? Sure. Bring it on. Bring it all on.
I’ve long lamented in this column the tendency of proto-metal bands to lean too heavily on covers and heavy blues, most likely often at the suggestion of their label bosses. So I’m hesitant to review an album that’s almost entirely covers, but when said album comes from South Africa circa 1970, well, it’s worth a bit of attention, as that is certainly a rarity.
Time to Suck is the only album from Suck, and it finds the band—who only existed for eight months and gained quite a reputation for a stage show that apparently included chopping up mannequins with axes and destroying their equipment—covering songs very much of the era. But even though you have to endure a 10-minute cover of “Season of the Witch” (sorry, I owe ya a beer for that one), this band has enough crazed, in-the-red bashing and barrelling on this record to make it worthy of some proto-metal exploration. Let’s dive in.
Suck’s take on Grand Funk Railroad’s “Aimless Lady” kicks things off and actually packs quite a good punch; I’ve yet to come around to Grand Funk Railroad so I’m not the best judge on how it ranks up to the original. Every time I try to listen to that band I just immediately glaze over for some reason, but this song is a good gentle nudge that it’s time for my annual attempt to understand GFR. A promising enough start.
I don’t really ever need to hear anyone else cover King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man” ever again, nor do I need to hear the original ever again, but here we have it anyway, Suck actually managing to be pretty convincing here, the crashing and bashing production highlighting the pretty bonkers drum performance and weird-guy vocals. I dig it, and imagining this coming from South Africa in 1970 is pretty wild.
Alright, things get tough here because flutes just don’t really work too well for me and because Donovan’s “Season of the Witch” just feels so absolutely irrelevant here in 2020. Goes on for fucking forever, too, with a drum solo. Hard pass, but now’s a good time to let Suck redeem some points by pointing out they considered naming themselves Fuck and set out to be as controversial as they possibly could be, apparently.
Hi, here’s another Grand Funk Railroad song now, which makes me mutter “What the hell?” to myself but I am quite into this one, Suck taking on “Sin’s a Good Man’s Brother,” a concise, foot-tapping rocker that, I must admit, really gets the job done. Again, awesome and energetic drumming really propelling things along here.
The band’s take on Free’s “I’ll Be Creeping” is uneventful, but up next is the true test: the one original here, Suck’s own “The Whip.”
“The Whip” whispers promises of proto-doom and almost delivers, but instead sticks to a fairly rote kinda-bluesy proto-metal hard rocker. It’s not bad at all, and shows great promise, the song more or less up there with other bands laying down this sort of simple early hard rock. Love the main riff, the soaring vocals are all confidence, and the drumming is just this side of too busy and is a joy to listen to.
Deep Purple’s “Into the Fire” gets the Suck treatment next, and there’s honestly not a lot to report here, except I’m just left wishing there were more originals. Colosseum’s “Elegy” ends off the album with its frantic, proggy, jazzy early-HR sounds.
The 2001 reissue of the record features a cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” tacked on to the end. It’s hard to get excited about anyone playing this song anymore, but realizing this was recorded in 1970 (!) paints things in a slightly different light. It’s not an incredible take, but it’s got tons of spirit and is one of the earliest known Sabbath covers, and I dig the vocals that wind it down.
Suck’s Time to Suck – The Decibel breakdown:
Do I need to be stoned to listen to this?: Nope.
Heaviness factor: Lots of in-the-red crashing and proto-metal attitude, although the sonics aren’t wildly heavy.
Obscura Triviuma: The band was part of South Africa’s first hard rock movement, the bands in which were dubbed “The Big Heavies.” The band’s Stephen Gilroy now owns Gilroy’s Brewery, which was one of the first South African microbreweries.
Other albums: Nothing, this is all the band ever did.
Related bands: Group ’66 (a South African 7” released as part of a Pepsi contest!)
Alright, fine, if you must: Definitely a joint or two.
