Electric Savage by Colosseum II

Electric Savage by Colosseum II 

Lately I've been exploring late 70s prog / early fusion, and discovering plenty of interesting bands I'd never heard of. Case in point is Colosseum, or rather Colosseum II because by 1977 when this album came out, there'd already been one incarnation of the band, and a feud that led to two competing incarnations. What attracted me to this was the presence of Gary Moore on guitar, someone I associate with a virtuosity of sorts, but one somewhat narrowly constricted to the blues rock genre. I had no idea he'd played fusion before that, or indeed that he had jazz fusion chops and yet... he has. Obviously, if you're in it for virtuosity, it's definitely worth a listen although I have to admit that I mostly fail to find something distinctive in Colosseum II's very competent sound. They sound good, but they also sound like virtually every other early fusion band that came before them, whether it's Billy Cobham's stuff or Return to Forever. One might argue they lean on the heavier side, but I'd respond it's harder to sound heavier than Cobham...