DEEP PURPLE — Bananas (review)

DEEP PURPLE — Bananas album cover Album · 2003 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
SouthSideoftheSky
Never mix food and music!

Jokes aside, this is a surprisingly good Deep Purple album. Only the cover art is abysmal, nothing about the music is. Not at all! House Of Pain kicks off the album at a high pace, and Deep Purple still got it. The heavy Sun Goes Down almost sounds like Black Sabbath in places. Haunted has grand piano, orchestration and female background vocals which is very surprising, and it really works!

I will not mention all the songs here, but I must point out that this is one of the most varied albums Deep Purple has ever made. Haunted is not the only track that is slower than what we are used to. The atmospheric closer Contact Lost, the bluesy ballad Walk On and the folky acoustic Never A Word are also in a slower mode than usual for this band. A blues ballad might not be too surprising though, but the latter song is a big surprise. And it is excellent! It features a great vocal melody and some quiet harpsichord (- ish) keyboards in the background. Beautiful!

The rest of the album is pretty straightforward Deep Purple material, but energized and not tired and old like on many of their more recent albums. Don Airay has replaced Jon Lord here, and that might be a factor that re-energized the band. Surprisingly, Airey sounds very much like Lord. I have always liked Airey (he worked with Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Gary Moore and many others), but he never sounded like this before. Steve Morse guitar work is great (as always), and the older members are somehow re-vitalized by the “youngsters”.

Fans of classic Deep Purple will not be disappointed by this album.

Go Bananas!
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Crimes Against Humanity Thrash Metal
UNHARVESTED THRASH
Buy this album from MMA partners
Traumatica Metalcore
NO GUERRA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Within the Visceria Death Metal
NECKBREAKKER
Buy this album from MMA partners
EP 1 Sludge Metal
CHAOTIC AGGRESSION
Buy this album from MMA partners
Songs of Blood and Mire Black Metal
SPECTRAL WOUND
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Origin Of Infinity - Chronosphere (OFFICIAL LYRIC VIDEO)
ORIGIN OF INFINITY
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Kingdom of Heaven - “Pleasures of Pain”
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
Bosh66· 1 day ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Sanctuary [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 18 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Farewell [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 18 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Curtain of Death - [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 18 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed