Helios Creed - Lactating Purple
Album Review
Spin Magazine
March 1992

Switching drummers and adding a synthesizer-sampler to the lineup has removed Helios from songwriting and taken it into sonic landscaping. Where his previous solo albums have been out there, they've still been within a recognizable rock context. This, his fifth solo album since leaving the highly influential Chrome, is definitely the most consistent. His guitar wizardry is awe-inspiring--where the guitar ends and the synthesizers and samplers begin is anyone's guess. Whenever vocals are used, they are distorted and echoed beyond recognition. And the songs are steadily becoming longer.

Hawkwind's Space Ritual comes to mind more than once, but Creed is more experimental and less "rock." "Flying Through The Either" and the inspired-ly titled "Martian Sperm & Bagpipes are close to "Blood On The Moon"-era Chrome, but there is a lot more going on in each song these days. Amazing non metal heavy metal for science-fiction minds. (Amphetamine Reptile, 2541 Nicollet Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55404)

Johan Kugelberg