GRANICUS transcends the genre of early '70s progressive hard rock, they will thrill somebody hungry for a killer in that department but are so creatively explosive anybody into any brand of hard rock from classic, metal, punk, prog up into the wild beyond will get caught up in the band’s whirlpool of manic energy. You get to relax here and there but most of the time they come at you so decisively you gotta hang on to your brain. These guys delivered an LP on level with the best famous bands of the day, contemporaries like Led Zep, Rush, Deep Purple, Sabbath… based on the power and variety captured here it is clearly only a lack of promotion that kept Granicus off the charts.
It has hard prog moves in spades but also over the top energy with outrageous vocal moves powerful enough to have scored a big bullseye in teenage wasteland America 1973.
Woody Leffel had a long history in bands out of Cleveland like the Tree Stumps, Black Rose Outsiders, Renaissance Fair and success in Detroit at the Grande Ballroom opening for Cream, Bob Seger System, Blues Magoos and others. He came back to Cleveland in 1969 and heardhigh energy rock coming out of a house down the street, it was Allen Pinell on guitar and Joe Battaglia on drums, soon tobe joined by Dale Bedford on bass and Wayne Anderson on lead guitar, with Woody on lead vocals. Rather than concentrate on gigging like most local Cleveland bands, Granicus set up in a local warehouse and spent the next year developing original material. They moved to a house in upstate New York and perfected their sound, also heading down to NYC to perform, attracting attention enough to get signed by RCA Records.After about 10 days in the studio this beast of an LP was in the can and they started playing shows to promote it opening for acts like Cactus, Bob Seger, Spirit.
