What started out as me compiling a list of my TRIUMPH ‘top 10’ (or something like that) I quickley got off track, as I went back to revisit the band’s entire catalogue. The band really started taking off with 1979’s Just A Game album, which featured the US breakthrough hits “Hold On” and “Lay It On The Line”. Prior to that, Triumph, who formed in the mid 70s, and signed to Canadian label Attic Records released a single in ’75 with guitarist Fred Keeler, doubt this got much attention at the time, but the band soon changed guitarists, bringing in Rik Emmett. Their debut album was released in ’76, and this is what I’ve been listening to the last few days. Those first 2 Triumph albums may be very overlooked, by myself included, but here I am wondering why I never gave this one much more time, and why I never hear anything from it on radio (we still occasionally hear the band’s cover of “Rocky Mountain Way” from the 2nd album).
From the opening acoustics of “24 Hours A Day”, which kicks in to a rocker, til the closing near 9 minute epic “Blinding Light Show/ Moonchild”, this album is classic Canadian hard rock. Triumph mixes Emmett’s acoustic guitar, along with borderline metal like “Be My Lover” (w/ talk box solo), “Don’t Take My Life” (reminscent of Hendrix’ version of “All Along The Watchtower”), “Streetfighter”, and it’s mellower Reprise. The second half picks back up the ‘metal’ with “What’s Another Day Of Rock n Roll”, “Easy Life”, and “Let Me Get Next To You”.
Triumph, later reissued as In The Beginning, may be the band’s hardest rocking album. I loved this early direction, and the energy of this album. They’d fine tune it over the years to feature those epics that mixed softer acoustic parts with hard rock from album to album. If you’re not familiar with this debut, I highly recommend checking it out.
Outsider Rock 