A Lost Classic.
‘Zero Time’ by Dark. (1971).
The guitars buzz ominously like chainsaws cutting though sheet metal, more brutal and perfectly nasty than pretty much any guitar sound previously captured on vinyl. The drums could just as well be the repetitious thump of an unusually heavy horse galloping along concrete. These two instruments build and build before erupting into one of the most powerfully satisfyingly hard rock riffs of the 70’s.
This is ‘Zero Time’ by British band Dark. It’s the final track on their 1971 album ‘Round the Edges’ and is as fine a slice of ahead-of-its-time proto-metal as you’re likely to find.
If you happen to be wondering who Dark are, that’s fairly understandable. They don’t have a Wikipedia page, they’re nigh on ungoogleable and the the only image I could find of the band is the black and white shot above.
Yep, both band and track are super rare. Not on Spotify, not on iTunes, never singled out for praise in music magazines. Superb as ‘Zero Time’ is, it’s harder to find than a sex tape starring the archbishop of Canterbury. Original pressings of the ‘Round the Edges’ LP are in fact so rare (only a handful were made) that they now change hands for £thousands. Apparently. Luckily for me (and you), some kind soul uploaded the track to YouTube. Yay internet.
‘Zero Time’ is as brilliantly savage as anything on Black Sabbath’s seminal and infinitely more well known ‘Paranoid’ LP, released a few months earlier. Dark’s vocals are altogether different though. Dreamy. Psychedelic. The creamy yin to the guitar’s bitter yang.
If you’re enduring a stressful week at work and have a penchant for fantastically executed rock noise, I have an idea.
Press play on the clip above and turn the volume way, way up.
Awesome, isn’t it?
‘Zero Time’ deserves a prominent place in the pantheon of hard rock greats. Let’s make it happen.
