Search - Steppenwolf :: Seven

A blues-metal classic that got lost..

R. L. MILLER | FT LAUDERDALE FL USA | 09/19/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"...in a mish-mash of super hits. Today, years after the magic, all you hear is "I wanna hear Born To Be Wild!" Or "What about Magic Carpet Ride?". Bikers. Dope. Those are the twin images conjured up when the name Steppenwolf is mentioned, and it ignores the fact that this is a rock-solid blues band that outdid Hendrix and matched the Doors in terms of pointed social comment. Like this album, with the tongue-in-cheek pseudo-misogyny of "Ball Crusher", the funkiest blue-eyed soul number since the Beatles' "Come Together". The Rolling Stones-like "Forty Days And Forty Nights"--straight out of Muddy Waters. The cautionary "Snow Blind Friend", about how to deal with a junkie too close to you to ignore. The rare Steppenwolf instrumental with the goofy cartoon-German title "Earschplittenloudenboomer". They don't do instrumentals that often, and it must be because they insist on doing only good ones. And the autobiographical "Renegade", which is sort of a prequel to "Monster". Imagine growing up behind the Iron Curtain the way leader John Kay did, escaping to the Free World barely with your life (one of Kay's friends got shot down by the border guards), and discovering that there's so much noise from extremism of both stripes here in the "Promised Land" that you can hardly hear yourself think. The sad irony is that a quarter of a century after that song was written, it's even worse than it was then. This album is the best illustration that John Kay has every bit of the iconoclasm of Jim Morrison without any of the meanness. Maybe that's why he's still alive today--still doin' his thing."

Steppenwolf 7

Dave | California | 03/05/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of the greatest rock records ever recorded. Nothing sounds dated on it -- no gimmickry to tie it to the past. Just clean blues rock with John Kay and Co.'s amazing vision. Where did they get this stuff?? I would be hard pressed to pick favorites, but Renegade and Hippo Stomp are definitely right up there. Buy this record."

Captured at the height of their powers and completely overlo

Metaljim | Kansas USA | 09/08/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Forget the hits, forget the biker image, forget everything you think you know about this band. If you don't have this album, you are missing one of THE classic albums of the early 70's. Along with the perfection of their previous "Monster" album, 7 showed everyone just what a great band Steppenwolf were. I'm talking the concept of a BAND, not John Kay and whoever. The magic captured here is only possible because it features the perfect, strongest and probably best Steppenwolf line-up. From start to finish, this album is wall to wall attitude and conviction. They perform every song like their lives depended on it. I'm a little biased, since I've owned this on album, 8-track, cassette and CD. Graced by one of my favorite album covers of all time, the entire package spins an aura of darkness that has stood the test of time. It captures that moment in time when it was apparent that the dreams and hopes of the 60's had been shattered by the shadows of war and an increasingly turbulent America."