"Trillion's debut in 1978 is too refined to be the debut. It is surely the masterpiece at the beginning of melodic rock era. They made progressive hard rock more palpable to ordinary music listeners. Their achievement can be compared to Kansas, Journey, Foreigner and Styx who then were running at the top of the game but Trillion was tragically underrated. This album was deleted for so long and left to be forgotten but thanks to Japanese music fans that want it back as CD form it was reissued in 1998 and both progressive and melodic rock fans can now enjoy it. Fergie Fredericksenfs high-toned voice gives this album fresh and feel-good atmosphere. My favorite tracks include catchy pop songs such as Give Me Your Money Money and Bright Night Lights. May As Well Go and Hand It To The Wind well represent the appeal of Fergiefs high-tone voice. Overall the album is lighter than TOTO's Isolation and Fergie's solo Equilibrium but as listenable as these melodic rock masterpieces. Too bad he soon left the band. Maybe the bands like Styx or Survivor might have given Fergie fuller opportunity. Since then he moved from one band after another such as Re Loux, Toto, and a number of solo works such as Equilibrium. This year his high-tone voice can be heard again in excellent manner in Jim Peterik/Joe Vana project MECCA due around May."
Trillion - self-titled (Sony) 3 1/2 stars
Mike Reed | USA | 02/02/2008
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Originally saw the light of day in 1978, as this was the progressive arena rock band's first of two lp's. Kept hearing how critics and their label was expecting Trillion to become 'the next Boston'. Of course, this never happened. That's too bad because I sort of liked this long out-of-print album. Some of the tracks off this semi-over looked gem I remember the most were the catchy "Hold On", "May As Well Go" and the well written "Hand It To The Wind". Line-up: Dennis Frederickson-vocals & bells, Frank Barbalace-guitar & vocals, Ron Anaman-bass & vocals, Patrick Leonard-keyboards and Bill Wilkens-drums. If you like '70's bands such as Foreigner, Styx, Toto, Journey and Kansas then you might want to hunt down a copy of this co$tly import CD reissue. My only regret is a year after this record came out, Trillion played a low-dough show at a club in my hometown and I missed it. Assume they disbanded soon there after."
WOW!
Darrin Matteson | 10/11/1999
(4 out of 5 stars)
"An obscure late 70s hard rock band that featured Patrick Leonard (who later went on to produce Peter Cetera and Michael W. Smith among others) on keyboard and Toto's "Isolation" vocalist, Dennis "Fergie" Frederiksen on vocals and tubular bells. Frederiksen's vocals are fantastic! The music sounds sort of like Styx meets Blue Oyster Cult. Well worth the money!"
Obscure 70s gem
Darrin Matteson | Aurora, IL USA | 12/17/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"In 1978 keyboardist Patrick Leonard and vocalist Dennis "Fergie" Frederiksen and a small handful of other musicians formed Trillion. Recorded in the studios at the Caribou Ranch owned by former Chicago producer, James William Guercio, in remote Nederland, Colorado their debut album hearkens back to a different era. Their brand of hard rock is strongly reminiscent of much of the better work of Blue Oyster Cult.
Frederiksen's tweeter-scorching tenor graces all but one track on the 8 song release. The album starts with a bang on "Hold Out" with Fergie not only contributing vocals but also playing the tubular bells. Tubular bells?!?! Yes, oddly enough, tubular bells being used in 70s hard rock. The bells are subtle and you may not even notice them at first listen but they accent the song nicely.
"Hold Out" segues into "Big Boy" which has a very similar vibe. Both tracks have catchy grooves fun to tap on your steering wheel or coffee table to.
For all its cheese glory, "Give Me Your Money, Honey" is a regrettably catchy song... Regrettably catchy because, really, you don't want to be caught dead singing it to yourself in public... but after only a few listens, unfortunately you may find yourself doing just that.
"You Never Had It So Good" will never win any awards for having clever lyrics. But it has a rather enjoyable guitar solo by Frank Barbalace and Fergie has the kind of voice that could make even the yellow pages sound compelling.
While his keyboard/synthesizer theatrics are present on all the songs on the album, Patrick Leonard's keyboard playing is most evident on "May As Well Go."
The whole album is enjoyable and fun, it doesn't take itself seriously (unless you consider a song titled "Fancy Action" to be high-art that is), but perhaps what makes this album so enjoyable is knowing that vocalist Fergie Frederiksen would go on to sing lead for bayou rockers, LeRoux, and south California studio rockers, Toto. And Patrick Leonard would go on to produce the likes of Madonna, Peter Cetera, and Michael W. Smith... not to mention was ½ of the sadly overlooked and critically acclaimed, Toy Matinee with the late Kevin Gilbert.
While their musical seeds weren't sown until later, this album shows where Frederiksen and Leonard's musical seeds were initially planted and where they initially cut their teeth."
Hidden Gem
S. OLEARY | Ottawa, Ontario Canada | 10/15/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I remember finding this album in a sale bin at a record store (original vinyl release, by the way). I picked it up for a cool $1.99 (Canadian...back then the Cdn and US dollars were about dead even). It ended up being one of my favorite albums. As one reviewer wrote, they were ahead of their time by several years, and that was no more apparent than when I played it in the late 80s and friends loved it....and were surprised it was released in 1978!
If you chance upon this CD (or find the original vinyl) grab it. It will make an excellent addition to your collection."
Track Listings (9) - Disc #1