(C) The Music Encyclopedia of The Gravis Sub Humus


Captain Beyond: Captain Beyond (same) 1972, Sufficiently Breathless 1973, Dawn Explosion 1977.

This group, after being intently locked away in a house they were renting in LA, practicing 8-10 hours a day for about 8 months time, recorded in just 2 days what may be the best Heavy Rock/Psychedelic/Progressive album ever recorded. The first Captain Beyond album is without question not only amazing in musical content from start to finish, it's also an absolute anomaly of a recording within Rock Music's history. This being because it powerfully and seamlessly blends the Heaviest of Rock with a mesmerizing obvious Psychedelic fabric that is a woven journey via stunning guitar oriented Progressive precision. The degree to which no other known group of musicians from the US ever had or have since. The musicians Captain Beyond consisted of originally were nothing short of an amalgam of super musicians all coming from a somewhat Heavy Rock background. Rod Evans the Lead Vocalist had been with Deep Purple, Bobby Caldwell on drums had been with Johnny Winter, Larry "Rhino" Rheinhardt on guitar & Lee Dowman on bass had both been with Iron Butterfly. The group initially formed in 1971. As one can imagine with such tremendous talent all assembled in one place, it must have taken a miracle for the group to remain together long enough to record the first album. After the initial album's release, because of extremely poor management & representation, after several line up changes the group eventually evolved to the point of extinction. Sadly none of their albums post 1972's self titled release even bore a remote resemblance to their preceding masterpiece.