English vocals, Swedish vocals,
instrumental
International relevance: ***/***
”Asoka” is one of the most
sought-after Swedish heavy rock albums, and needless to say one of
the most expensive as far as the original Sonet pressings go. Patrik
Erixson had previously played drums for the excellent Taste of Blues
but shifted to vocals when joining Take Off who soon changed their
name to Asoka.
So, what else is there about their only proper album,
except being heavy and expensive?
Frankly, not much. Yes, we get
crossfiring guitars, loud organs, hard driving drumming, heavy
riffing and some over-the top jamming, but if you want good songs
to channel the energy,
there's not much for you here. And Patrik Erixson shouldn't have left
his drum stool – his singing voice is thin and out of place. That
means Asoka suffers the same fate as Epizootic – a whole lot of
collector wallet draining moves and gestures but very little
substance.
When Mellotronen reissued the album on
CD in 2005, they added an album's worth of archival material as
bonus tracks, including a couple of rare ones from Taste of Blues and some recorded
while the band was still called Take Off. The unreleased portion was also released
separately on vinyl as ”Take Off”. It doesn't do anything to
better the original album. And as often the case with albums of this
kind, it has mostly substandard sonics. But as we all know, money
talks.
Guitarist Robert Larsson and keyboard player Claes Eriksson joined Lotus as Asoka disbanded in 1973 or possibly 1974. A reincarnated Asoka has released three albums since 2007.
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