Vincebus Eruptum (the first word is pronounced
'win-kay-bus') is the debut
studio album by American
rock band
Blue Cheer. Released in January 1968, the album was the
first to feature the band's classic lineup of vocalist and
bassist
Dickie Peterson, guitarist
Leigh Stephens and drummer
Paul Whaley. A commercial and critical success,
Vincebus Eruptum peaked at number 11 on the
Billboard 200 albums chart and spawned the top-20 hit
cover of
Eddie Cochran's "
Summertime
Blues". It is lauded as one of the first
heavy metal albums.
Blue Cheer's debut album was
recorded in 1967 at Amigo Studios in North Hollywood,
California. In an interview with StonerRock.com, frontman
Dickie Peterson explained that "Some songs I wrote have
taken 20 years to really complete. And there are other songs
like “Doctor Please” or “Out of Focus” that I wrote in ten
minutes." On "Doctor Please" in particular, Peterson
explained that "when I wrote the song (in 1967), it was a
glorification of drugs. I was going through a lot of “Should
I take this drug or should I not take this drug? Blah, blah,
blah.” There was a lot of soul searching at the time when I
wrote that song, and I actually decided to take it. That’s
what that song was about and that’s what I sang it about,
sort of a drug anthem for me." On the band's cover of Eddie
Cochran's "Summertime Blues", Peterson noted that "We kept
changing it around and adding/taking bits away. It also has
to do with large doses of LSD."
Blue Cheer's debut album has widely been held in high
regard by critics. Writing for music website
Allmusic, Mark Deming described Vincebus Eruptum
as "a glorious celebration of
rock & roll primitivism run through enough
Marshall amps to deafen an army", praising the band's
"sound and fury" as one of the founding movements of
heavy metal.The album has also been identified as an
"All Music Guide Album Pick", denoting that it is one of the
top albums recommended by the Allmusic critics.
Pitchfork reviewer Alexander Linhardt gave the album
nine out of a maximum ten points, although noted that the
album was less structured and more experimental than its
successor
Outsideinside.
Sputnikmusic offered the song an "Excellent" rating of
four out of five, with reviewer Joe Katz praising the album
as "one of the heaviest blues albums in existence", noting
the "Raw production and quality [which] keep it fresh in the
world of squeaky clean classic rock sounds."Online music
service
Rhapsody included Vincebus Eruptum in its list of
the "10 Essential Proto-Metal Albums", suggesting that the
band "not only inspired the term 'power
trio,' they practically invented
heavy metal."