Forge Your Own Chains: Heavy Psychedelic Ballads and Dirges, 1968-1974 collects 15 slabs of internationally flavored acid rock that run the gamut from genius (the delicious, languid psych-pop of
D.R. Hooker’s title cut) to questionable (Shadrack Chameleon's barely demo-worthy “Don’t Let it Get You Down”). In between there’s a whole lot of fuzz, blood, flower power, and epic, foreign space jams, all of which will appeal to the collectors and hobbyists who spend their weekends (or lives) bent over thrift shop crates of browning vinyl looking for their white whale. ~ James Christopher Monger