Death Walks Behind You

Released

Atomic Rooster’s second album is its best-known, possibly because of its nightmare-inducing cover art (William Blake’s Nebuchadnezzar) but also because it contains an actual hit single, “Tomorrow Night,” which hit #11 in the UK. The band was led by mad visionary keyboardist Vincent Crane, bolstered by guitarist John Du Cann and drummer Paul Hammond; his lyrics are bleak, paranoid, and despairing, but the music fluctuated between doomy proto-metal (the nearly eight-minute title track) and grooving, R&B-inflected rock jams like “Tomorrow Night,” which features some of 1970’s best cowbell playing. “Sleeping For Years” is a Led Zeppelin-ish stomp, and “I Can’t Take No More” seems like caveman garage-rock at first but reveals the sophistication of mid ’70s power pop (listen carefully and you may hear a prefiguring of the Cars’ “Dangerous Type”).

Phil Freeman

Suggestions
Rides Again cover

Rides Again

James Gang
Deuce cover

Deuce

Rory Gallagher
Cactus cover

Cactus

Cactus
Split cover

Split

Groundhogs
Captain Beyond cover

Captain Beyond

Captain Beyond
Present cover

Present

Van der Graaf Generator
3+3 cover

3+3

Tomeka Reid
Theirs cover

Theirs

Thumbscrew
Tyranny and Mutation cover

Tyranny and Mutation

Blue Öyster Cult