Imperial Dogs: Punk? Heavy Metal? Just Call It Rock & Roll!

Here's a particularly perspicacious review of the Imperial Dogs' 1989 LP, Unchained Maladies: Live! 1974-75, written by the infamously iconoclastic Chris Stigliano for issue No. 17 of his long-running Black To Comm fanzine, which has since metamorphosed into the Blog2Com site:

"While we're still on the continent,let's look into yet another label dedicated to THE BIG BEAT. Dog Meat Records. Besides releasing loads of Australian and El Lay decarock back during their stint as Grown Up Wrong, these buds've raped the Vaults of Mid-'70s Punk Past and come up w/a nailbiter of a disc w/the Imperial Dogs' UNCHAINED MALADIES, a collection of tracks by the overlooked band of the sleazy LA scene who mighta made a dent if they came about during the late-'70s but got bashed about while part of the Rodney's/Kim Fowley scene.

"You've probably read my review of their single that BACK DOOR MAN released in '77; well, that's on here as are more rehearsal tracks from the same sesh that spawned these screamers & even some live tracks from the group's debut gig in '74 and boy, is this great. Like the best of SoCal rock, this is punk and heavy metal, or like the best punk has some heavy metal influx and like the best HM's got punk roots ... aww, just call it ROCK & ROLL!

"The live tracks are as RAW & ALIVE as the stuff the Stooges laid down at the Whiskey a few months prior w/heavy Stoogian overtones while the new rehearsal spazz seems more Heavy Metal proper in a Blue Oyster Cult and even pre-speedmetal artery! Like Rocket From The Tombs, the Dictators and loads more, this was happening across the country and maybe WORLD at the same time w/o each band knowing what the other was up to ... howcum THE VILLAGE VOICE (or RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT) hasn't picked up on that yet?

"The forebearers to a whole load of the Southern Californicate rock scene from Black Flag, Wurm, Metallica and Guns & Roses to Fear and just about every kid inna area to hitch up to the punk and/or heavy metal mainlines (and I should tell ya Don Waller's liner notes are great in the way they detail the story and the response from various stars ... a few of the facts presented therein should even get a few rock & roll history books rewritten too!)."