10 Obscure And Rare Hard Rock & Metal Albums
9. Stray - Stray (1970)
One of Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris’ favourite bands, Stray’s original proto-metal sound incorporated psychedelic touches and progressive arrangements into their heavy rock groove.
Their eponymous debut is still their best, although it’s hard to get hold of today if you’re looking for the original and not the 2005 expanded reissue. Stray is an underappreciated gem, before its time, featuring some quite stunning guitar workouts, especially on the opening track, the near ten-minute epic All In Your Mind.
It’s a remarkable record for the era, and a remarkable debut album by anyone’s standards. What’s even more remarkable, however, is that the band that wrote and recorded it were eighteen and nineteen years old at the time. The level of precocious talent involved is almost frightening.