DEEP PURPLE — Stormbringer (review)

DEEP PURPLE — Stormbringer album cover Album · 1974 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
Certif1ed
Stormbringer is the second album from Mk III Deep Purple, with David Coverdale handling vocal duties, and it's yet another inconsistent effort, with metal interest only in the title track - but OMG, what metal interest there is!

Stormbringer (the song) absolutely smokes; Judas Priest, we hear where you came from! This is riffing from the Metal Gods - on your knees and chant after me; "We are not worthy"!

There just aren't enough superlatives - and you'll have read a million other reviews saying how good this song is. Those reviews are absolutely right - any that don't praise it to the skies don't know what the hell they're talking about!

But it all takes a nosedive from here.

The funky aspects are still present, albeit to a lesser degree, as the sleaze fest of "Love Don't Mean a Thing" demonstrates - Lord really piles on the dirt here, but Blackmore is happy to noodle up and down the pentatonic for decoration. It's whiskey time!

The weakest song on the album follows, a real snore-fest of a ballad with faster bits, with Coverdale singing like a girl for crying out loud. The guitar solo is altogether too pretty for my tastes - utter mush.

"Hold On" is a MoR plodder - Coverdale gives it all he's got, and sounds amazing, but that ain't going to save a song that sounds like aural wallpaper.

"Lady Double Dealer" is more like it - uptempo, balls out rock and roll. Very lacking in the metal department, though Blackmore's solo kicks some ass.

We're back to shaking our funky stuff for "You Can't Do It Right" - play that funky music, white boys! Sensuous stuff, and a really cool song, but 0/10 on the metal scale.

"High Ball Shooter" is an interesting mish mash of Boogie and straight Southern rock with a backbeat. The performances of the musicians are impressive, but no metal.

"The Gypsy" and "Soldier of Fortune" are both standout tracks - the latter casuing my neck and back hairs to rip my T-Shirt from my shoulders - but neither are in the same league as the title track.

1/9 is a pretty poor score to have to translate into a rating, but I reckon "Stormbringer" (the song) is so good that I'm going to bring it up to 2.5 stars for the album - which is a pretty darn generous score for a metal site in my opinion!
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