Sir Lord Baltimore

When the subject of heavy metal pioneers comes up (and one gets past the obvious bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple), several lesser-known but still remembered bands are invariably mentioned, and one of them is Sir Lord Baltimore, who hailed not from Baltimore but from New York. The formed in the late 60's and managed two albums before giving it up (confusingly, the self-titled album is their second, not first). Given that these were released in 1970-1971, one shouldn't expect modern crushing guitars, but this was pretty heavy stuff for the time (particularly the debut), a wild, psychedelic hard rock sound that occasionally brings to mind early Budgie as well as the aforementioned Zep. They may have been the first hard rock band whose drummer was their lead singer, still a rarity in heavy metal. When modern stoner bands are referenced as "70s-influenced", this is the kind of band they're referring to.

Some thirty-plus years later, the main two guys in the band, John Garner and Louis Dambra, reunited and recorded Raw in 2006, featuring some of the material they had written back in 1976. There does not appear to be any future plans for recording or playing live.

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Discography

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