Deep Purple – Stormbringer – 1974
Wow, one year, two Deep Purple albums. I’ve said before that I think 1974 was a watershed year for rock music. The coalescence of so many ideas and pinnacle of concepts and conceits.
In 1974 you could buy Burn and dig on the journey that had become Deep Purple from prog rock 60s psychedelia to heavy metal architects to soul infused version of both.
Or you could get Stormbringer. A half assed attempt to follow the soul tropes set down on that previous record.
How bad is Stormbringer? It’s not awful. It’s not like Dee Dee Ramone’s rap album. But from a band widely recognized as one of the three godfather bands of metal, it’s just generic. Dull. Uninteresting. Like a band’s 9th album. Only I would have hoped that the new inclusion of David Coverdale which had infuse the previous album with such energy, would have carried over to this one. I have to believe that 12 years later both of those records would have been put out as one CD and we would have combined the ratings between the two to come up with something very very average.
Nothing will prepare you for the third rate soul stylings of “Hold On” (which I swear Chicago should cover) or the 5th rate wannabe-Purple “Holy Man”.
I will admit to kind of enjoying the speed-sheen metal of the title track and “Lady Double Dealer”, the only time Blackmore really gets to shine on the record. “High Ball Shooter” is not bad, either, even though I think it would work better as an Aerosmith tune.
Stormbringer is what happens when you let the bassist get too much input. They always wanna funkify everything. They really should best be left to laying down a bottom and leave the filigree to the others.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Ritchie Blackmore just quit after this experience.
Oh, wait. He did.
Grade: C-
ASide: Stormbringer
BlindSide: Lady Double Dealer, High Ball Shooter
DownSide: Holy Man (oh, snooze city), Hold On
