PROTO-PROG

Rightfully proclaimed one of the first true heavy metal albums, In Rock is one heavy mother. Blackmore moves to the front of the mix, while Lord creeps further below (but still with a strong presence). Let us not forget Gillan's first (and one of his best) appearances. Another must get.

All in all, one of the greatest hard rock albums of all times. It is a landmark of rock 'n roll music. 5.0

Although, as in "Burn", the auspicious beginning with Blackmore's guitar deployment in the homonymous and robust "Stormbringer" (the best song of the album), the proposal is nevertheless heading towards more accessible harmonies, as with the cloying "Love Don't Mean A Thing", the innocuous "Hold On", or the inconsequential "You Can't Do It Right", accompanied by the lightened boogie rock of the agitated "Lady Double Dealer" and "High Ball Shooter", the latter featuring one of the sporadic appearances of Jon Lord's hammond on the album.

And both the peaceful semi-ballad "Holy Man" with Hughes' spirited vocals, the misty half-time of "The Gypsy", and the melancholic "Soldier of Fortune" with Blackmore's delicate acoustic arpeggios and the best Coverdale on vocals, balance a little more a work that Blackmore belittled with insulting terms.

A few months after the recording of "Stormbringer", whose imposing cover is a colored adaptation of a photograph of a tornado in Minnesota (USA) in July 1927 complemented by the winged horse 'Pegasus' from Greek mythology, the irascible man in black would leave Deep Purple for the first time to form Rainbow.

2.5/3 stars

At least it was an event for Who fans. The casual Who fan would never really warm to this one, and even many older followers dismissed it as being impenetrable and overcooked. It wasn't radio friendly, the short US tour was poorly recieved, so why did this eventually succeed in scaling the heights?

It happened because their audience was willing to take the time required to fully understand this epic. I don't know if "Quad'" can still mean the same to fresh ears as it would have 35 years ago. Mods were a distant social movement even in 1973. But even in the parochial "Englishness" of it all there was still a spot on understanding what it was to be young, confused, angry and ectastic. Actually, the entire Mod backstory somehow made it more plausible because of its exotic nature.

Don't pick this one up first if you're new to The Who with fresh ears. But whenever you do encounter "Quad", you'll soon find it to be indispensable. 5.0 one of my favorites.

A mixture of influences and styles inhabit the album, which oscillates between the elaborate hard rock of the homonymous "Burn" with the baroque keyboards of Jon Lord and the guitar exhalations of Ritchie Blackmore in the frequency of "Highway Star", the festive boogie of "Lay Down, Stay Down" and "What's Goin' On Here", the groove- heavy funk of the sludgy "Sail Away" with Lord's hypnotic keyboards, and the witty "You Fool No One" with a great solo by Blackmore over Ian Paice's dynamic percussive base, and the meditative blues of the mournful "Mistreated" with another very good solo by Blackmore and Coverdale's most accomplished vocal participation in the work.

And to complete the palette of colors, the instrumental "'A' 200" (name taken from antiparasitic disinfectants), starred in good measure by the keyboards and especially Lord's lysergic moog and Paice's percussive evocation of Maurice Ravel's 'Bolero', adds the experimental and progressive touch to "Burn" in its final stretch.

Commercially "Burn" did well (#3 on the UK charts and #9 in the US), and while it doesn't reach the heights of "Deep Purple in Rock" or "Machine Head", it's a few notches above "Fireball" and several more above "Who Do We Think We Are".

3.5/4 stars

Opening up the album with a killer version of their iconic track 'Burn', Purple set an explosive tone for the rest of this rather short release (purposely omitting songs from the previous lineup with Gillan and Glover) - the live version here is an invigorated rendition of the classic track, generally respectful of the original sound and structure of the song. Next up on the tracklist is a recording of the heavy blues number 'Mistreated', the version here is really powerful, with the performance of Coverdale being particularly noteworthy. Glenn Hughes' bass parts are also incredibly animated and upfront, which is a very welcome treat to the audiophile here, his playing shall be lauded for its technicality, precision and energy. The track gets extended by a fine Blackmore solo moment and an interpolation with classic blues number 'Rock Me Baby', here playing an interesting role in the context of the wallowing tones of 'Mistreated'. 'Lady Double Dealer' is excellent, while 'You Fool No One' gets an improvised extension through a Jon Lord solo opening spot, a Ritchie Blackmore string of guitar pyrotechnics, and the inclusion of Ian Paice's drum solo from 'The Mule', concluding the 16-minute-long version. A gorgeous 'Stormbringer' run-through closes off the overall excellent live album, eventually passed through extensive studio editing that had in any case failed to harm the recording's grit and liveliness, indicative of the powerhouse that Deep Purple is as a live act.

A thumping version of 'Highway Star' opens up the album, this is a fantastic way to kick off the show on a high note, the energy is excellent, the playing is excellent, and the dominant wailing screams of Ian Gillan impress all throughout. Lord and Blackmore are quite generous with their soloing, and the entire band locks in for a classic night of heavy rock. This is followed by a triumphant and rather exhilarating performance of 'Child in Time', graced by the frantic banshee wails of Gillan once again, all performances are beyond description here. The mandatory inclusion of 'Smoke on the Water' brings a rampant playthrough of the iconic rock anthem, while the following track 'The Mule' features the six-minute-long drum solo of Ian Paice, really entertaining and impressive to hear. The next tracks feature long and improvisational instrumental sections, with wide, stabbing solos from both Blackmore and Lord, working brilliantly within the jam-based setting here. The final and most expansive piece on the album is the 20-minute recording of 'Space Truckin', definitely a fantastic and explosive rendition of the otherwise tremendous song from the 'Fireball' album. The entire 'Made In Japan' set is perfect, from the inclusion of iconic tracks from the DP catalog to the incredible performances of each band member, to the degree of experimentation and flamboyant energy with which each song is tackled, and finally, because of the fact that this is arguably the most significant live recording of the Mark II lineup of the band.

'Comin' Home' and 'Lady Luck', positioned at the beginning of the album, are upbeat and fast-paced rockers that have a more ostensible classic rock sound, with Bolin's fiery riffs making their way through the tight rhythm section, while Coverdale's vocals definitely impress. 'Getting' Tighter' is a generally enjoyable funk-ride, yet an odd entry on a Deep Purple album, while the much more improvisational track 'Dealer' features some of the more exciting and unpredictable playing of both Bolin and Lord on 'Come Taste the Band'. This is one of the tracks indicative of the possible direction this iteration of the band could have taken had it continued its existence - the song, however, is followed by the slightly tedious and once again very funky 'I Need Love' and the forgettable song 'Drifter', both of which offer nothing overly exciting. 'Love Child' is a classic from this album, while the mini-suite 'This Time Around/Owed to 'G'' is the most unusual entry on the album but also a very welcome experiment on a generally stale and one-dimensional studio album. Closing track 'You Keep On Moving' is another one of the better-known Purple songs from that period, which is closed off by an album that is somewhat confusing, but also never really as bad as people say it is. It just a pretty good rock album but not necessarily an incredible DP album.

A proposal that, although it doesn't have as memorable and forceful pieces as 'Machine Head', has some rescuable moments of unquestionable value, such as the rocking 'Woman From Tokyo', the tribute to the great receptivity that the British had on their excursions to Japan, and the only single from the album, Blackmore's zeppelin-like riffs combined with Lord's huge keyboard display in the powerful 'Rat But Blue', and the great guitar solo of the man in black over Roger Glover's bass lines in the robust blues 'Place in Line'.

A step below are the agile and lilting developments of 'Mary Long', 'Super Trouper' and 'Smooth Dancer', which move towards a more conventional classic rock, and the grandiloquent and intoned 'Our Lady', which does not seem to be part of the sound frequency of the purple universe recognisable at that time.

Once the recording of the album was finished and in the middle of the umpteenth promotional tour, Gillan resigned in writing (that's how difficult things were) from the band, accompanied in the decision by Glover. This was the end of Deep Purple's most successful line-up (Mark II) until their reunion eleven years later on 1984's 'Perfect Strangers'.

3/3.5 stars

Lord's lush Hammonds and Blackmore's baroque-scented guitar solo on the thundering "Highway Star", the immortal, universal riffs of the timeless "Smoke on the Water" (which describes the cinematic fire that occurred during Frank Zappa and his band's performance at the Mountreux Casino Theatre on the shores of Lake Geneva, the very place Deep Purple chose to record "Machine Head"), Lord and Blackmore's virtuosic display on the robust blues rock "Lazy", and the thick riffs on the fantastical, galactic "Space Truckin'" with Gillan's vocal wailing, are carved into the foundations of hard rock and incipient heavy metal, and immortalised on the legendary live double "Made in Japan" released months later.

Just below the famous tetralogy, there is the mid-tempo bluesy riff of "Maybe I'm a Leo" and the determined and unstoppable keyboards of the vertiginous "Pictures of Home"' with a similar structure to "Highway Star"; And if the excellent and melancholic ballad "When a Blind Man Cries" (B-side of the simple and correct funky single "Never Before") had not been left out, partly because of the technical limitations of the vinyl and partly because Blackmore was not convinced by the song, the album would have been even more rounded.

The stupendous "Machine Head", which reached the first place in the music charts in the UK and several European countries, and in the top ten of the US Billboard with around 3 million copies sold, is an obligatory reference and source of inspiration for countless bands that emerged in the following years (Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Metallica, and Alice in Chains, among others).

Essential

4.5 stars

"Fireball" was recorded in the few spare moments the band had, suffering from the growing ego disputes between Ian Gillan and Richie Blackmore and even dealing with the discomfort of Jon Lord, who saw his desire to incorporate classical overtones losing more and more ground.

It is in this complicated context that the album's approach suffers and doesn't quite come together, despite the unbridled start of the rocking "Fireball", the driving and bluesy "Demon's Eye" with Gillan in Jim Morrison mode and some very good solos by the Lord/Blackmore duo, and the Arabic insinuations of "The Mule" with Ian Paice's persistent drumming, a sense of reduced revolutions and creative exhaustion envelops the work, and is glimpsed in the repetitive and simple "No No No", in the unexpected "Anyone's Daughter", a country song that would have been better suited to a collaboration with Bob Dylan, and in the experimental and lysergic "Fools", which is not bad, but at times becomes more monotonous than necessary, weighing it down.

The irregular "Fireball", which inexplicably did not include the hit single "Strange Kind of Woman" in its European edition and has an interesting Funky outburst at the end with Lord's consistent keyboard-led melody in "No One Came", is in my opinion, more than what it is said to be, but less than expected, perhaps because it is in the shadow and wedged between the band's two emblematic albums, "Deep Purple in Rock" and "Machine Head".

3/3.5 stars