Although the Florida trio Bang’s 1972 sophomore outing was much tamer than their gargantuan-sounding eponymous debut, it displayed huge hurdles in matured musicianship and song-craft starting with “Mother,” a mostly acoustic rocker loaded to the gills with barbed pop hooks and rich guitar tones that seem to have swapped out the Marshall stacks for vintage Fender tube-tones. It sounds as if they had discovered Who’s Next by the Who and stopped listening to early Black Sabbath and Blue Cheer records. Even songs that maintain the band’s penchant for heavy riff-rock have evolved; album standout “Humble” rocks hard with tasteful percussive embellishments and Frank Ferrara’s best vocal performance here. Meanwhile the return to rudimentary proto-metal in “Idealist/Realist” explores the possibilities of using the wah-wah pedal to flange and phase guitar notes while letting drummer Tony D'Lorio spread out with more fills and flourishes. “Feel the Hurt” flirts with balladry while “Bow to the King” dives headfirst into what could be the one of the first proto-metal power ballads, where acoustic guitars abound and vibraslap replaces cowbell.