GILLAN — Higher and Higher (review)

GILLAN — Higher and Higher album cover Boxset / Compilation · 2005 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Time Signature
Maelstrom...

Genre: heavy metal

This is a compilation release, containing mostly B- but also some A-sides from various releases by Gillan in the period 1978-1982.

This being very much a budget release (the usual prices is between £2 and £3 [sometimes less] - so don't buy it if you see it priced at more than £3), there are no liner notes or any other sort of information, and the quality of the music varies. In terms of production, the sound is dated, because the content on this release has not been remastered. Of course, there is an upside to this, as it adds an atmosphere of authenticity, and, frankly, given the usual price of this release, one shouldn't expect anything other than a collection of Gillan tracks.

In terms of the music itself, there are a number of tracks that will probably no interest metalheads, such as the new age pop song "Fiji", the funky "Bad News" and the live jam session "The Festival of Spirits". But other than that, most of the tracks are actually hard rocking metal song, some of which are played at breakneck speed, such as "Maelstrom", the semi-punky "Come Tomorrow", "Purple Sky" and the hardrocking "Running White Faced City Boy" (famously covered by thrash metallers Xentrix). Others are perhaps a bit more polished, but still categorizable as metal tracks, such as "No Easy Way", the magnificent "Restless", "Higher and Higher" which interestingly sounds like Rainbow, and the heavy power ballad "M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction)". And for the Purple Fans, there is a version of "Smoke on the Water", too.

This probably primarily appeals to fans of Gillan, but I think that fans of traditional metal, glam metal and hard rock, and perhaps even fans of more extreme types of metal, will appreciate this compilation of breakneck heavy rocking tunes fronted by Ian Gillan... provided that one can accept the untouched raw production and the lack of any bonus material whatsoever.
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