Blackfoot was always the heaviest of the great Southern rock movement, and on
Siogo(reputedly either a Native American word for "closeness" or a crude groupie acronym, probably the latter) the boys try to break into the metal market and regain their brief hold on American audiences. Staunch metallists will recognize the touch of producer
Al Nalli (from
Axe's similarly excellent Nemesis) and a new bit of European muscle from
Uriah Heep's
Ken Hensley on the keyboards. Although cliched throughout, powerful performances send openers "Send Me an Angel," "Run for Cover," and "Drivin' Fool" to lofty hard rock heights. "We're Goin' Down" nips the riff from "Double Vision," while "Goin' in Circles" and the micro-hit "Teenage Idol" thunder like late
Rainbow. "Heart's Grown Cold" treats the
Nazareth dirge like a lost classic, and virtually transforms it into one as a result (The next and basically last
Blackfoot burner,
Vertical Smiles, houses another
Nazareth standard in "Morning Dew," as well as the lost
Peter Cetera nugget "Livin' in the Limelight," but that's another album.).
Siogo would be founding guitarist
Charlie Hargrett's finale; he was disgruntled at the band's bandwagon-jumping; but the record remains a great blast of hard-working heaviness, which definitely deserves restoration on CD. ~ Whitney Z. Gomes