COME TASTE THE BAND

"Come Taste the band" is the only Deep Purple Mark IV's studio album and to be honest is much, much better than "Stormbringer". Released in 1975, it features Tommy Bolin on guitar, replacing Blackmore, after he quit forming Rainbow; the album is absolutely more energetic than its predecessor, with tracks spanning between Hard rock tipical purple sound (like "Comin' Home, and "Drifter") and deep funky influences (Gettin' tighter, "I need love", "Dealer"), with even a twist of soul, I'm referring to "This time around", a surely peculiar song for this band. This album is also more homogeneous than "Stormbringer".

Hughes' influence in terms of musical direction reaches its climax in this work and the sound of the band is undeniably funky; heavy funky would be a good description.

Bolin solos are really interesting and ABSOLUTELY underrated, even though a comparison with Blackmore would be unfair, not to say useless, since the two of them were simply workin' with two complete differently sounding band, that in common had only the name (compare this to "Burn", the pearl of Mark III) . This is the same reason for which "Come taste the band", for how good can be, and it's really good, since it has very few weak points, cannot be considered other than "good, but non-essential", since this band is not Deep Purple, or in other words, it's not what Deep Purple has been always considered one of the greatest bands of all times in rock, it would be impossible to recommend it to someone who's never heard anything by them, wanting to approach their music.

3,5 stars because it is halfway between this conception of good, but non essential, and a deserved 4 stars for music quality.