Cactus were formed from the ashes of some of the most pummeling bands of the late ’60s: bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice came from Vanilla Fudge, guitarist Jim McCarty had been in Mitch Ryder’s Detroit Wheels and the Buddy Miles Express, and singer Rusty Day had passed through Ted Nugent’s Amboy Dukes. Their self-titled debut album delivers bludgeoning, proto-punk blues-rock (“Parchman Farm,” “Let Me Swim,” “Oleo”) and heavy blues a la early Led Zeppelin (“No Need To Worry,” “Feel So Good”), leavened with the occasional acoustic ballad (“My Lady From South Of Detroit”). Whatever they did, they did as unsubtly as possible, and for at least this one album, it worked. This is the blues as a symphony for tuned jackhammers.

– Phil Freeman