The highest point of MK1 – 95%
Superreallycool, October 7th, 2014
Written based on this version: 1969, 12″ vinyl, Harvest Records
This is one of those albums, that even people who aren’t Deep Purple fans can listen to and enjoy. This is one of the first albums to take the complexity and intellectual aspects of progressive rock, and merge them with the sheer power of metal. The result is arguably the first progressive metal album (High Tide didn’t release their debut until a month later). The result is a truly great album.
Speaking of their mix of metal and progressive rock, no song better exemplifies this than “Bird Has Flown”. On top of having this awesome mix, Rob Evans vocal performance here is among the best in all of progressive rock (not that he had much competition, prog rock isn’t known for its vocals). The song is clearly very heavy, I’d argue heavy enough to truly be considered true metal, and obviously influenced Black Sabbath later on.
If you’re not already a fan of Deep Purple, which if you need to look at this review I’ll assume you’re not, you may be surprised at how predominate Jon Lord’s organ is. This is a trademark of Deep Purple’s sound, and it’s present here in abundance. It provides both melody and texture. This is one thing that may keep many metalheads away from this record, so I’d listen to some other Deep Purple before buying this, to make sure the “organ metal” sound is something you enjoy or not. That being said, Jon Lord’s organ helps Deep Purple stand out.
Most songs here are about 5 minutes, bar the closer which is an astounding 12 minutes long. If you aren’t okay with long compositions, this album will do you no favors. Again, listen to some of the songs and determine if you’re okay with the long songs.
Despite finding a good balance between metal and progressive, I’d say the album will appeal more to progressive fans than to regular metal fans. The sound is a mixture of prog and metal, but compositionally it is 100% progressive, and if you’re not a fan of progressive music already, there isn’t much chance this album will convene you otherwise. The album is closer to Yes than to Black Sabbath. That being said, if you enjoy both metal and progressive rock, this album is a phenomenal piece of work, with many of its songs being true classics. This is more or less just the later day Deep Purple sound being put on to progressive rock compositions.
rafazardly 