DEEP PURPLE — Fireball (review)

DEEP PURPLE — Fireball album cover Album · 1971 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Bmiler
I can see why In Rock ended up such an unbridled rocking album, it was totally a reaction towards Concerto for Group and Orchestra (it wasn't exactly a commercial success, or a critical one, for that matter). And it succeeded big time, although it didn't feature the big hits you hear off Machine Head, it didn't really matter. In Rock finally gave the band an identity. Fireball, while never a maligned album isn't as highly regarded, probably because of the high standards that put themselves up on In Rock. I own the American LP with "Strange Kind of Woman" instead of "Demon's Eye". It's a classic example of UK singles not being released on upcoming UK albums, but needed to include on the American LP release, in this case, "Strange Kind of Woman" (Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced is even a more extreme case, as "Hey Joe", "Purple Haze" and "Wind Cries Mary" were never included on the UK LP because they were released as singles already, but included on the American LP, and I can go on about UK and US Beatles and Stones LPs released up to 1967, but I won't). On with the review:

The title track rocks just as hard as anything off their previous album. It even includes proto-speed metal guitar riffs, so if there's such a thing as "proto-speed metal" this is definitely it! It's not Ride the Lightening-era Metallica or Slayer, but speed metal was the roots of thrash metal, and Deep Purple doing perhaps the first ever speed metal song. "Strange Kind of Woman" should have been a hit in America (again, don't pay attention to this part if you live in the UK, unless your CD reissue includes this song as a bonus cut), classic Deep Purple all the way. "Anyone's Daughter" is a bit different: Ritchie Blackmore attempting country music, and the rare time the band doesn't take themselves seriously. I don't recall hearing acoustic guitar in a Deep Purple song before (or after). "The Mule" is more adventurous, more in heavy prog territory, while Jon Lord provides some nice psychedelic organ playing on "The Fool", but there are heavier parts of this song with Ian Gillan providing his trademark screaming vocals. It's a bit on the experimental side so the more conventional hard rock or metal fan might find this a bit hard listening, but as I'm also a fan of prog rock, I can appreciate the approach they do here.

As mentioned, In Rock gave the band very high standards that may be hard to top, but Fireball is still very much worth having.
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