Recorded and released in 1974 "Stormbringer" features the
Deep Purple Mark III line-up consisting of David Coverdale (vocals),
Glenn Hughes (vocals and bass),
Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Ian Paice (drums) and Jon Lord (keyboards).
"Burn" was an excellent debut for the Mark III line-up, but on "Stormbringer" Coverdale and Hughes positioned themselves in the band.
"Stormbringer" is sometimes labeled as the
Deep Purple album, which doesn't sound like a
Deep Purple album. "Stormbringer" sees the band moving in a funk and soul-influenced direction.
Glenn Hughes came from a soul background and he sets his mark on "Stormbringer", which resulted in a controversy with Blackmore who later decided to leave the band because of the direction. However, the album ages well and today sounds really good. 20 years ago when I first started listening to
Deep Purple I avoided this album, but it ages like fine wine.
Despite the album went gold in the US in a few weeks only, "Stormbringer" was nowhere as successful as their previous releases. The record company has a big part of the responsibility since they chose
You Can't Do it Right as first single, since it is the song that sounds least alike classic Purple.
Gypsy has great guitar flakes and emotions from Blackmore's Stratocaster but overall Blackmore is quite anonymous on the album. For some incomprehensive reason Coverdale and Blackmore had to fight to get
Soldier of Fortune on the album. This may be the best vocals ever from David Coverdale. His voice has got a warm tone and
Soldier of Fortune rounds off the album with class.
The rocking title track, the groovy up-tempo
Lady Double Dealer and the bouncy
Highball Shooter all ranks among
Deep Purples Mark III finest moments. The use of double vocalists really works and the Hughes/Coverdale constellation shines on these album highlights.
"Stormbringer" could have been a transition album, but
Deep Purple never fully walked the bluesy soul path.
Deep Purple was very productive in the seventies and "Stormbringer" was recorded in Munich in only 12 days and later mixed in L.A.
The special 35 years anniversary re-release by EMI Records has an accompanying DVD, which features an original Quadraphonic mix album as 5.1 DTS 96/24 and the original album Quadrophonic mix stereo 48/24 with on screen images. Furthermore there is a 20 page booklet with lots of background stories on the album. This is what every re-issue should be like. EMI records also did a fantastic job on the
UFO reissue series and "Stormbringer" matches the high quality.
In retrospective the album is a true classic since it ages well. I rediscovered "Stormbringer" only to find it sounding stronger than ever.
Written by
Michael Friday, April 3, 2009
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