Primevil "Smokin' Bats at Campton's"

So after writing the previous Truth and Janey review, I decided that I'd continue on this little tour of the "Old Heavy" of the American Midwest and talk a little about this very obscure little monster called Primevil.   These Midwestern stoners hailed from Indiana and put out "Smokin' Bats at Campton's" in 1974 as a limited edition private pressing.  I see that it has now been rereleased on Radio-Active records and is available on cd.   Don't know much about these guys, but they definitely seemed to have a sense of humor.  On the album cover underneath Primevil, it says  "baddest band what am" and Dave Campton is credited with Vocals as well as Electric Chair.

Musically, after starting off like a late 60's acoustic hippy psyche trip, things start to rock with tight fully modern 70's riffing, sounding kind of southern rockish fueled with a couple shots of Leafhound.
By the second song, "Progress", we're undeniably kickin' it 70's style with high octane bluesy grooves.
Things lag a bit with "Fantasies" which is a lightweight instrumental ballad that I tend to skip over despite the nice guitar soloing.  "Pretty Woman" ratchets things back up, sounding like a southern rock version of Buffalo,  Campton's vocals reminding me especially of Dave Tice.   In fact a lot of this is record brings to mind "Only Want You For Your Body"-era Buffalo.

"Progress"

The high and tight riffing continues for 3 of the 4 remaining songs.  "Tell Me If You Can"  rocking mightily into  a stoned space out jam in the middle.  "Hey Lover" and "High Steppin' Stomper" both showcasing the bands wacky sense of humor.  The former sounding like a twisted atonal Doobie Brothers as done by Buffalo (it is actually a very cool tune, even though my description maybe doesn't make it sound like it).  And "High Steppin' Stomper" utilizing actual stomping to help drive it through the verse.  The album closes with "Your Blues," which is exactly what you might think it is - a straight ahead slow blues.  This one's a little too far into "blues jam"-land for me.  It's pretty tame and really is a bit pedestrian.  If they had taken it up a notch, like Taste's "Catfish Blues," then it would've been greatness.  But alas...

In the end, you've got 6 of 8 solid rockers, with 4 of those fueled by genuine first class riffage.  That's as good a percentage as you get on a lot of records from the 70's.

Riff Density- 7
Riff Caliber- 8
Post Blues Factor- 8
Groove Factor- 8
Dig It-8