FLAX
One. 1976 Vertigo, Norway. £600+ Flax were an eccentric hard prog band from Oslo, who began in 1971. A gem of an album, One was recorded in 1975, but wasn’t released until ’76, by which time the band had temporarily split.
Commercially it was a strange year for an album of this nature to be released (hence poor sales), as it doesn’t really sit with what else was happening, although vocalist extraordinaire, Hermod Falch, had a sometimes sinister snarl, which was often very punk rock in execution. Having said that, it was largely contrasted with almost Queen-like operatic harmonies.
Opener Demon In Your Heart, is a freakish, theatrical heavy prog masterpiece. It alone makes One worthy of investigation. Full of heavy riffs, psychotic time changes, spacey synthesisers and evil…
