Various - Blackmore's Castle: A Tribute To Deep Purple & Rainbow


Year of Release: 2003
Label: Lion Music
Catalog Number: LMC079
Format: CD
Total Time: 00:00:00

Uh oh, another tribute album. I will bet that is what you are thinking right now, right? That is the way I think, but sometimes those thoughts are passing ships in the night and forgotten in a heartbeat with an exceptional recording such as this.

Blackmore's Castle: A Tribute To Deep Purple & Rainbow is indeed a superb tribute to two legendary rock bands and their guitar player. Ritchie Blackmore made some very good music with Deep Purple and Rainbow, and thanks to Rainbow, Ronnie James Dio became a star. To say that Blackmore's contributions to the development of rock music are important is an understatement.

The best part about this tribute album is that there are no superstars involved. All independent artists from the Lion Music label give memorable performances for this compilation of select songs and they all do a kick ass job! In fact, it could be a highlight of their careers when they look back someday. I must say that there is not a washout in the entire set, all 13 tracks rock in the tradition of the honored bands, with some personal touches and slight variations of course, but it is all very good and a joy to hear. Not to take away anything from any of the other bands, as they were all exceptional, but the Arabesque version of "Stargazer" reeled me for good. I wanted to put in my Catch The Rainbow -The Anthology immediately after hearing that rousing version of the classic rocker.

I absolutely love Deep Purple and Rainbow, so on one hand I am not hard to please, then on the other I am a little more sensitive to what each track sounds like, for instance, I noticed that the drums and guitar intro were different in "Space Truckin'," although I really enjoyed it. Little things like that longtime fans will notice and then the new listeners will rush out and grab back catalog titles for both bands, and that is a good thing because music like this is hard to find these days. This one is a real gem so get it.


Tracklisting:
Bloodsucker (Mister Kite) / Perfect Strangers (Transcendence) / Stargazer (Arabesque) / Self Portrait (Lars Eric Mattsson) / Sixteenth Century Greensleeves (Reign Of Terror) / Gates Of Babylon (Iron Mask) / Battle Rage On (Headline) / Black Night (Condition Red) / Space Truckin' (Torben Enevolden) / Man On The Silver Mountain (Eric Zimmermann) / Highway Star (Winterlong) / Lazy (Jason Richardson) / Still I'm Sad (Condition Red)

Musicians:


Discography:
Blackmore's Castle: A Tribute To Deep Purple & Rainbow (2003)

Genre: Various Genres

Origin VA

Added: February 23rd 2004
Reviewer: Keith "Muzikman" Hannaleck
Score:
Artist website:
Hits: 2015
Language: english

  

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