Nautilus - 20000 Miles Under The Sea (1978)

Nautilus was a Swiss Band (not the German one), that combined the talents of Urs Lerch on bass, Dieter Ruf on guitars, Peter Fibich on drums, Ralph Stucki on keyboards, and Christian Bauer on guitars. Ruf, Stucki, and Bauer all contributed to the vocals. They only released two albums (1978's "20,000 Miles Under the Sea" and 1980's "Space Storm"), and not much is actually known about them. It's an obscure band, to say the least.

This band is a bit of an oddity, given the time period. At a time when prog was on its way out, they decided to record psychedelic, proto-metal inspired, symphonic rock (sound weird? It should). There is a strong early Uriah Heep component, with touches of John Lord, a smidgen of Genesis, a dash of Black Sabbath, and even some ELO style harmonies. But that's not all. Don't forget the Psychedelic component. The best analogy I can make, is imagine if Iron Butterfly went symphonic.

So, it's a bit of a mixed bag. The lyrics, and vocals can come off as cheesy at times, but the music stands up. There is solid composition here, and it's much different than other symphonic bands of the '70s. Hats off to these guys for attempting it in the age of punk and new wave.