Budgie-If I Were Brittania I´d Waive The Rules (1976)

During their early period, the Welsh band Budgie recorded their most classic albums, a time when they showcased their heavy rock and blues rock side infused with progressive elements. In this vein, they released magnificent works such as "Budgie" (1971), "Squawk" (1972), "Never Turn Your Back on a Friend" (1973), and "In For The Kill" (1974). A year later, with "Bandolier", the Cardiff-based group began their transition towards a more predictable, solid hard rock sound, while still maintaining progressive structures but lacking the creativity of their earlier work. With their next album, "If I Were Britannia I'd Waive The Rules", the band definitively abandoned those complex compositions in favor of a more eclectic style that evolved into the generic hard rock they had begun exploring with its predecessor. Even so, there are some very enjoyable tracks here, such as the heavy blues "Anne Neggen", the rocking "If I Were Britannia,'d Waive the Rules", the blues-rock "Quacktor and Bureaucats", the melodic "Heaven Knows Our Name", and the vintage "Black Velvet Stallion", the latter being the best vestige of their glorious past. However, the album also reveals a certain lack of ideas, as seen in the uninspired "Sky High Percentage", a failed blues-rock track with mediocre instrumentation, and the mid-tempo, mainstream-influenced "You're Opening Doors". Despite the positive aspects of the vast majority of the tracks included here, the final result of the album shows a certain disconnect from their classic albums.

Budgie-Never Turn Your Back On A Friend (1973)

1973 was the year Budgie captured the attention of the rock world with their album "Turn Your Back On A Friend," a thunderous example of the best heavy rock of the early 70s. From the opening track, a true heavy metal anthem, "Breadfan," to the devastating and heavy hard rock track "You're the Biggest Thing Since Powdered Milk," the album explores paths that border on progressive sounds and the heavy metal cult following of contemporary bands like Black Sabbath.

Other standout tracks include the galloping "Baby Please Do Not Go" and the poignant "You Know I'll Always Love You," thus closing out a truly epic and memorable album from the Welsh band Budgie.

Budgie-Squawk (1972)

One of the best bands in British hard rock was the Welsh group Budgie, who released a series of fantastic albums, almost all of which are now considered cult classics in the proto-hard rock and early heavy metal community. Founded in Cardiff in the late 1960s, their initial lineup consisted of bassist Burke Shelley, drummer Ray Phillips, and guitarists Brian Goddard and Tony Bourge. In 1971, they released their first album on the MCA label, though Goddard was no longer with the band, thus solidifying their status as a powerful power trio. On this debut album, Budgie showcased their effervescent hard rock sound in a very early stage, featuring powerful guitar riffs and constant rhythmic shifts. A year later, and under the same label, came "Squawk", which, with a superb cover by Roger Dean, definitively confirmed the band's progression and maturity. It featured outstanding tracks such as the progressive "Young Is A World", with its great keyboard passages, and the powerful "Whisky River", "Hot As A Docker's Armpit", "Drugstore Woman", and the heavy "Stranted", while the bucolic "Make Me Happy" added a melodic touch to this interesting album from the Welsh band. A year later came the band's magnum opus and one of the best albums of the 1970s, the monumental "Never Turn Your Back On A Friend".

Budgie-In For The Kill (1974)

Budgie holds a special place in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of fans of 1970s heavy rock, even though they never quite reached the commercial or media heights of many of their contemporaries during that era. Like Led Zeppelin, Budgie understood the importance of incorporating lighter, sometimes acoustic, moments and complementing them with the grandeur of heavy hard rock and heavy metal riffs, thus creating a more dynamic and engaging style. "In For The Kill", the band's fourth album, is considered one of their greatest works. On it, they seem even more confident than on their superb previous releases, making their diverse range of styles all the more captivating. Tracks like the heavy rock of "Running From My Soul" and the thunderous, ominous progressive heavy rock of "Living On Your Own" showcase this clear dynamism. On the other hand, there are the solid and conventional heavy metal tracks "In For The Kill" and "Crash Course in Brain Surgery", the acoustic and beautiful "Wondering What Everyone Knows" or the epic and powerful "Zoom Club", which creates an attractive hard rock album with subtle progressive influences from the best heavy metal band that Wales has ever produced.