Warner Bros. Presents Montrose!
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Album Summary
Warner Bros. Presents Montrose! hit the streets in 1975 on Warner Bros. Records, and baby, this was no ordinary sophomore effort — this was Montrose coming back swinging harder and wilder than before. Guitarist Ronnie Montrose led the charge alongside the powerhouse vocals of Sammy Hagar, with bassist Bill Church and drummer Denny Carmassi locking in the rhythm section that gave this band its thunder. Once again produced by the masterful Ted Templeman, whose golden ears had shaped some of the finest rock records of the era, the album was recorded as arena rock was reaching a fever pitch across America, and Montrose delivered nine tracks of lean, mean, hard rock electricity that crackled with swagger and purpose.
Reception
- The album received generally positive notices from the rock press, with critics recognizing the band's continued commitment to a hard-driving guitar-forward sound that stood apart from the softer mainstream rock of the period.
- Commercial performance was modest relative to the band's critical standing, though the album helped sustain Montrose's reputation as one of the more serious and technically accomplished hard rock acts working in the mid-1970s.
Significance
- Warner Bros. Presents Montrose! stands as a vital document of mid-1970s hard rock at its most uncompromising, capturing a band that refused to dilute its sound even as the music industry tugged artists toward more commercially palatable territory.
- The album's guitar-driven intensity and tight rhythm section work helped lay groundwork for the arena rock and heavy metal sounds that would dominate the coming decade, making it an important touchstone in the evolution of American hard rock.
- With tracks like Matriarch and Black Train anchoring the record's heavier ambitions, the album demonstrated that Montrose was not content to rest on the template of their debut but were actively pushing the boundaries of what a hard rock band could deliver in the studio.
Tracklist
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A1 Matriarch 77
4:33
-
A2 All I Need 95
4:18
-
A3 Twenty Flight Rock 176
2:42
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A4 Whaler 118
6:54
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B1 Dancin' Feet 199
4:03
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B2 O Lucky Man 131
3:14
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B3 One And A Half 124
1:39
-
B4 Clown Woman 174
4:20
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B5 Black Train 127
4:36
Artist Details
Montrose was a hard rock powerhouse that erupted out of San Francisco in 1973, built around the scorching guitar wizardry of Ronnie Montrose and the raw, explosive vocals of a young unknown named Sammy Hagar, and together they laid down a debut album that hit like a freight train and helped forge the blueprint for American hard rock and heavy metal. Their self-titled 1973 record, produced by Ted Templeman, was a lean and mean slab of high-voltage rock that influenced a whole generation of bands coming up behind them, from Van Halen on down the line. Though they burned bright and fast before lineup changes and commercial pressures took their toll, Montrose left behind a legacy that serious rock fans hold sacred, a reminder that some of the most important music never got the mainstream recognition it deserved.
