Review Summary: An excelent greatest hits collection from an amazing hard rock band. If you are a hard rocker, and want to start listining Deep Purple, this is where you should start.
Deepest Purple: The very best of Deep Purple
Deep Purple is a British hard rock band that formed in the late 60’s and is still playing today. Despite there long career, they were only well known for there classic guitar riff on “Smoke on the Water”. Many people never knew of the better music they had made. This greatest hits collection is full of fantastic material that could satisfy both hard rockers and metal heads. The high pitch screams of Slayer’s Tom Araya or the Speed of Metallica can all be traced back to this band.
The Good stuff:
This CD is instrumentally fantastic. Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and Key Board player Jon Lord keep the listener interested with there amazing talent. They are both excellent at soloing. This can be heard in songs like “Burn”, “Child in Time”, and the amazing “Speed King”. The speed and melody of them are so delightful that they raise the hair on my arm. The CD is also jam packed with groovy riffs that can get stuck in anyone’s head. “Demons Eye” “Black Night” and of course “Smoke on the Water” are great examples of this. They are not very complex riffs but are catchy and fun to play. Ian Paice (drums) and Roger Glover (bass) aren’t the greatest at the instrument, but they are still decent. My knowledge of bass and Drums are very low, but I can tell Ian Paice is no Neil Peart. My standards for drums and bass aren’t very high so this is not a major concern.
The vocals are very sophisticated as well. Ian Gillan has a wide vocal range and can do normal singing and high pitched screams. This may take some listeners some time to get used to, but for others, it adds a lot to the song. “Child in Time” wouldn’t be as good as it is if it wasn’t for the screaming. It adds so much emotion. David Coverdal sings on “Burn” and “Storm Bringer”. He isn’t as good as Ian Gillan but he gets the job done. I find him to be a fairly plain singer and he isn’t very unique, but his vocals are not bad at all.
I love the sing along choruses. They are what define hard rock. “Strange Kind of Women”, “Space Trucking” and “Highway Star” have fun choruses that can please many crowds. They are the catchiest part of every song here. If you like sing along choruses, then I strongly recommend this.
The Bad Stuff:
There are some other songs that are as good (or better) than any of the songs here, but are not featured. “Pictures of Home” “Hush” and my favorite Deep Purple song “Lazy” are all better than most of the songs on the CD. You are not getting the best example of there potential. This leads me to my next point. You are better off buying all there albums appose to just getting this. This is why I gave this CD a 4.5/5
Conclusion
I will recommend this to anyone who likes hard rock, and is not familiar with Deep Purple. Anyone else should buy all there albums. Machine Head alone is better than this in my opinion.
Recommended Tracks:
Speed King
Fire Ball
Space Trucking
Child in Time
This is my second review, and my first was a track by track. Please tell me how to improve this. Enjoy!
