Jade Warrior’s third studio album surfaced in 1972, when the British quartet’s psychedelic-prog vision abounded with well-crafted songs and incredible musicianship. “A Winter’s Tale” solemnly opens with a hushed acoustic folk foundation; flute solos and Tony Duhig’s electric guitar wizardry help take the tune into more artful realms. “Snake” steps up the band's sound, with hard, bluesy acid rock boasting a bone-crushing distorted bass and the deep, brassy resonance of a giant gong. To the dismay of artful progressive rock fans, this heavy, charged sound was best realized on the album’s salient single “The Demon Trucker,” where a pronounced cowbell replaced the gong and double harmonic guitar leads played over earworm melodies and a big, boomy, hard-grooving bellbottomed strut. But fans of the band’s more fantastical leanings can find solace in “Lady of the Lake,” a King Arthur–inspired mini-epic that has more in common with Emerson, Lake & Palmer than Grand Funk Railroad.