DEEP PURPLE — Fireball (review)

DEEP PURPLE — Fireball album cover Album · 1971 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Time Signature
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Genre: hard rock

"Fireball" is perhaps a bit of an underrated album, because it is very much obscured by the legendary "In Rock" and "Machine Head". "Fireball" is actually a very, very good hard rock album. The album as such is generally characterized by a bluesy boogie drive, which, in many ways, was a common thing in 70s rock music.

"Fireball" is certainly very relevant to heavy metal music. The opening track "Fireball" is a hard rocking uptempo track with riffing that has now become standard in heavy metal music, and the track itself may be compared to "Aces High"-style Iron Maiden tracks. "Demon's Eye" is a slow and heavy boogie-driven track which emanates a type of darkness, unusual for Deep Purple, but typical for a lot of heavy metal music (it's likely that metal inherited this darkness from Black Sabbath's music rather than from "Demon's Eye"). "Fools" is another darker and heavier track (with a really cool main riff), and, interestingly, it contains several sections that make me think of My Dying Bride (especially the instrumental bridge, whose drum beat would fit right into a doom metal track [ignoring the caracas, of course]). "The Mule" probably would not appeal to hardcore metal fans, but in the perspective of 70s rock, it's an outstanding track with a certain psychedelia to it (not unlike early Psychotic Waltz) and some amazing drum work.

While this rock classic may not in its entirety appeal to all metalheads, it does contain a lot of things that would later become epitomic of heavy metal music. I think that open-minded and curious metal fans will be able to appreciate it, and fans of rock music in general are bound to like it.
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