They say necessity is the mother of invention. They also say that when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Let’s face it, “they” say a lot of things, especially when trying to put a positive spin on any obstacles that we may face in life, and I could go on spouting cliches all day, but there is some truth in those old sayings and really, happy accidents can often lead to the best results.
Case in point: Canton, Ohio’s Wrath, a 1970s rock band whose lyrics touched on some occult themes, making them a perfect fit for The Numero Group’s Warfaring Strangers: Darkscorch Canticles, a compilation of similarly Dungeons and Dragons-esque hard rock/proto-metal acts that never acheived huge success. When Wrath booked some studio time back in the ’70s (with a recording engineer who I assume must have looked like Howard Hesseman), singer Rick Page was struck by a bout of laryngitis. Rather than cancel the session and lose out on their deposit, the band soldiered on, recruiting guitarist Ralph Minocchi’s wife Sherry to sing the lead on “Warlord.” We’ll never know how the original version would have sounded, but I can only imagine it wouldn’t have been quite as interesting. Instead of just sounding like a generic ’70s hard rock band, Minocchi’s vocals add a bit of a girl group/garage rock meets psychedelia vibe.