Warhorse-Red Sea (1972)

“Red Sea” was the second and final release from the British band Warhorse, one of the most promising progressive hard rock bands of the seventies, who had the misfortune of competing with contemporaries like Uriah Heep and Deep Purple, among many other bands of the era. Their leader, bassist Nick Simper, came from the latter, and was, predictably, expelled by Ritchie Blackmore. Even from their impressive debut, this band possessed all the elements for guaranteed success: the raw sound of Creedence Clearwater Revival, the feeling of the Allman Brothers, the magic of Led Zeppelin, and the virtuosity of ELP. Their continued success was a palpable demonstration that with different luck and a better vocalist, they could have gone much further. For this second album, the band still consisted of Ashley Holt on vocals, guitarist Peter Parks, keyboardist Frank Wilson, drummer Mac Poole, and the aforementioned Nick Simper on bass. At the time, there was much debate about why they never achieved the success they deserved. Perhaps part of it was the insufficient promotion by the record company Vertigo, which was more interested in promoting other bands on its roster. However, it's also true, considering the time of its release, that there were dozens of bands then that were competitive and incredibly creative enough to surpass or equal them with their interesting approach, without resorting to the same old clichés. Even so, Wilson's raw and gritty organ, Simper and Poole's firm and precise rhythm section, Parks' sweet guitar harmonies, and Holt's tense and vibrant screams carried the band through the series of high-quality songs that make up this album, as demonstrated by the hard rock tracks "Back In Time" and "Mouthpiece", both with that unmistakable Deep Purple style, the blues rock "Confident But Wrong", the laid-back "Feeling Better", the rhythmic "Sybilla", and the progressive "I (Who Have Nothing)". “Red Sea” would be the culmination of a band that in its early days showed itself to be one of the most precocious formations of the best hard rock, even almost on par with Deep Purple themselves, but for different reasons they did not get past the starting line and fell into complete oblivion, despite creating two fantastic albums that today are considered an essential part of the evolution of proto-hard rock.