AMG Review of In the Beginning...

Rob Theakston
All Music Guide

Before they were on par with Rush as Canada's prog-rock heroes, Triumph were earnestly forging away to develop their sound. In the Beginning... captures just that: the band's debut recording while they were still finding and developing the formulas that would make them so successful. The opening "24 Hours a Day" wouldn't sound out of place during the finest moments of Boston's catalog, but the majority of the tunes found herein are highly informed by the presence of Led Zeppelin. Gil Moore's take on the infamous Bonham stutter kick of the bass drum, the exact chord progression found on the climax of "Stairway to Heaven" is also the anchor to "Don't Take My Life", and the comparisons go on and on. But that's not to say In the Beginning... is a total loss -- far from it. It's the cornerstone from which their house of prog-rock greatness was built.