Track 3- Frozen Over

Artist: Captain Beyond

Album: Captain Beyond

Genre: Progressive Rock, Hard Rock 


        Captain Beyond is somewhat of an odd historical relic. They had the potential to develop into a much more influential act, but instead, they have ended up as a hidden gem of sorts. Fusing hard rock, progressive rock, and even the beginnings of what would later develop into psychedelic rock, Captain Beyond occupies a niche that no-one really knew existed at the time.

       Captain Beyond was a supergroup, formed by Bobby Caldwell, an ex drummer for Johnny Winter, former Deep Purple singer Rod Evans, Larry Reinhardt, and Lee Dorman, both of whom played in Iron Butterfly. As all three of their former bands will eventually come up in rotation, I'll refrain from speaking too heavily about them for the moment. For now, it suffices to say that the proto-metal style of both Deep Purple and Iron Butterfly combined with the energetic blues drumming of Caldwell fused with not a small amount of influence from the contemporary Yes to form a new, transcendental form of rock. 

       The music of Captain Beyond sounds familiar at first listen, but quickly gives way to new ground. Whereas Yes at this time was embracing their love of classical music, Jethro Tull drew heavily on folk roots, and Moody Blues moved ever closer to a symphonic sound, Captain Beyond approaches the sound with a large emphasis on Reinhardt and Dorman's guitar and base riffs, giving the music the same hard feel that would later develop into the metal scene through the influence of their former band. These riffs are then elevated by Dorman's interest in alternative time signatures and arrangements, which brings the hard rock base beyond its own nature into fully fledged progressive rock. Finally, the band's sound is drawn together by Evan's vocals, which echo and seem to float through the complex instrumentation- bringing the picture together and pulling the listener along through the length of the album, but never distracting their attention away from the rest of the mixture. 

       Even without Caldwell, Captain Beyond's second album, Sufficiently Breathless, holds to this formula, though it adds in some slight Latin influences to produce a lighter, more Tull like sound. Their third and final album, Dawn Explosion, returns to the band's roots with Caldwell's help again. So, with such a solid sound, innovative direction, and not insignificant listener base, how is it that the band didn't manage to last through the decade? Simple- mismanagement. Capricorn Records wasn't in the right place to know exactly what they had on their hands, and as such, they misbooked Captain Beyond, and never found it the audience that it was so ready for. Of course, this is a shame, as Captain Beyond would have been a major accessible innovator with its highly technical sound and highly approachable track length- especially when compared to the other progressive outfits at the time. 

      Still, Captain Beyond did find an audience. It is now widely regarded as a major precursor to the stoner rock genre. The major focus on riffs, smooth transcendental sound, and work with differentiating time signatures would grow into this new movement, which would only further accentuate the reliance on long, flowing jam sessions in their own sound. Still, even today, Captain Beyond is fascinating to listen to- both in that you can hear a very different, yet familiar, sound from an almost classic band, and partake in a little piece of history at the same time.. 

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