The Power Of The Picts – WRITING ON THE WALL***

It Came On Sunday/Mrs Cooper’s Pie/Ladybird/Aries/Bogeyman/Shadow Of Man/Taskers Successor/Hill Of Dreams/Virginia Water

The Power Of The Picts was the sole album release from the Scottish rock group Writing On The Wall. They were better known for their live act and for playing at London’s Middle Earth club.

“Scottish heavy rock band Writing On The Wall made it big on the underground rock scene in the late 1960s through a highly dramatic stage act. Their only album was theatrical heavy blues psychedelic rock that, despite its power and menace, was too obviously derivative of better and more original artists to qualify as a notable work. To look at the positives, the band does play with a soul-rock crunch; the songs sometimes shift tempo and melody unpredictably.”

“Strong hard rock/proto metal that's heavy silly fun. Some great melodies and killer riffs. The whole band is good. Some folk seem not to like the singer. The writing is a little derivative on some tracks, and so there's a lack of overall focus. Despite the lack of unity, this should be totally enjoyable for fans of this period.”

“One of the very few pre-Sabbath heavy metal albums. Simplicity is the key. The heavy sound becomes more important than the solos, more important than the vocals even. The organ player is in it too, no fooling around. The singer sounds helpless and out of place.”

“This one is a real grower. At first listen this seemed a bit too raw and simplistic. What we have here is heavy early proto-progressive rock. The dominant instrument is the Hammond organ which is played quite a lot in a loose and wild manner. This is a great period piece, and recommended to fans of the early UK progressive scene.”

“Apparently starting as a soul covers band, they took a drastic career change to produce a prog rock album. Sadly the vocalist still thinks he is singing soul. Musically the band are highly competent and, whilst not in the upper league of prog bands of the time, produce a highly listenable and interesting album with lots of Hammond.”

“The only downside to this album is the annoying vocals. It's hard to take the heavy atmosphere of the music seriously when the vocalist insists on making such unnecessarily stupid vocalisations.”