Salamander - The 10 Commandments 180 gram vinyl lp (due to size and weight, this price for the USA only. Outside of the USA, the price will be adjusted as needed)

Some of you with long memories will remember when Ken Golden rescued this album from total obscurity for the 10th release on Laser's Edge. It's a 1971 UK album that falls between progressive hard rock and proto-progressive sounds. That CD edition sold out many, many years ago, and this has been unavailable for 15 years or more. Now here is your chance, in a limited lp reissue in a four-way foldout poster-style picture cover, mastered directly from the master tapes and pressed on 180 gram vinyl.

"First-ever vinyl reissue of this UK 1971 album, originally released on the Youngblood label. Based on The Ten Commandments, though not proven to be Christian rock itself, the album is a nice progressive pop-rock disc showing the influence of Deep Purple and The Moody Blues, with a good dose of organ, guitar and brass. Sounds like: Deep Purple, The Moody Blues, conceptual/orchestral prog with big slabs of organ and bass groove. Fantastic, limited reissue in a four-way foldout poster-type picture cover, housed in a deluxe PVC outer sleeve. 180 gram vinyl, newly-remastered sound from master tapes, including an insert with liner notes by Andy Morten."

"This record was something of an enigma -- apparently it never got distributed very widely even in England, where it was recorded and released, and was never officially issued in the United States. The band calls to mind early Deep Purple (pre-Machine Head) in their style, while the record resembles the early progressive efforts of the Moody Blues. This is a concept album built around the Ten Commandments, with each of the ten songs corresponding to a commandment -- it seems like a stretch today, in terms of an effort at reaching a mass audience, but one must remember that 1970 was the era of the original Jesus Christ Superstar album. Salamander take the concept and run with it most effectively, backed by some occasional orchestral accompaniment, but mostly the quartet pounding away, highly melodic and sometimes a bit heavy but always interesting. Dave Titley's guitar work isn't in Ritchie Blackmore's league, but his voice is powerful and expressive, and it's surprising that we haven't heard more from him, and A.B. Benson's keyboard work was of at least the same caliber as Rick van der Linden of Ekseption, or even Jon Lord of this period, and he should have done more that would have been heard."-Bruce Eder/All Music Guide