For this edition of Metal Mondays, we look at a relative obscurity, which could rival Black Sabbath’s debut with a claim to be the first heavy metal album.
Randy Holden Population II
Population II was recorded in late 1969; roughly around the point Sabbath would have been recording their debut. But the album was almost lost to time. Sometime shortly after initially recording it, Holden had all of his equipment stolen and ended up bankrupt; prompting him to discard the album, quit music, and move to Hawaii. Unbeknownst to him, it was given a limited release by a label called Hobbit records (a record label named after Tolkien characters feels extremely on-brand for metal). The album gained a cult following over the years but Holden, himself, didn’t even discover its release until over 20 years later in 1991.
Holden had played in various bands throughout the 60’s, experimenting with increasingly psychedelic and heavier guitar sounds along the way. Population II was his first solo outing, although it also features drummer, Chris Lockheed.
It lives up to its status as potentially the first metal album because it is HEAVY. The template is big, sludgy power chords and ominous, trudging drum marches; punctuated by riff after riff after riff…essentially Doom Metal as it would become known. On one hand, that’s fitting as those deep power chords mean there’s an foreboding tone underpinning everything. On the other hand, doom feels too bleak. This isn’t actually a dark album, the riffs are too epic – almost triumphant – it feels celebratory as much as anything; a celebration to the art of noise and rocking the fuck out.
While there are vocals, the album leans more towards heavy instrumental jams; there’s not much in the way of typical verse>chorus structures. There can be a tendency for this style to drag, but that never happens here; anytime it feels like you might get stuck too deep in the sludge, a new riff blasts in to drive things forward. And at 31 minutes, the album feels epic, without having to be overly long.
The vocals can be pretty indecipherable, but they’re used to complement the guitars rather than act as the focus. With ad-libbed shouts, like “Watch Out!”, which should be cheesy, but were the height of cool when delivered by hard rockers of this era. There’s at least two lyrical references to how much he loves his guitars. Again, it should be cheesy, but it’s so unpretentious that it gets a pass. And only someone who loves their guitars this much could think up these sounds in the first place.
This is like a forgotten piece in the jigsaw of rock history. Blue My Mind in particular sounds pretty unique, even now when everything has been done to death. I’d argue this was still proto-metal; something more akin to hard psychedelic rock. But if we’re gonna call it metal then it’s metal at its purest, where it’s simply a descriptor for heavy guitar music. There’s none of the subsequent sub-cultural baggage to come; no cartoon skeletons on the cover, no stupid name like Death Zombie (I’d bet good money that’s an actual metal band name). This is just a dude named Randy, who loves his guitars.
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