Album Review - Various Artists - Blackmore´s Castle - A Tribute to Deep Purple and Rainbow

So you are thinking, this is what, the Umpteenth compilation that pays tribute to just about anything Deep Purple related (not to mention a few Dio related cuts for when he was in Rainbow). When comparing this to all the others, this is fairly a strong tribute compilation, standing up amongst many others. For the most part, Blackmore's Castle is mostly centered on Lion Music artists, which pretty much speaks for itself, seeing that the majority of the artists on that label are fairly top notch.

Blackmore himself is worthy of any tribute, due to the stature of being one of the godfathers of Metal guitarists; and not to mention the fact that along with Hendrix, he was one of the first to wield a Startocaster beyond it's otherwise twangy tones and hotwire the Marshalls with unbelievable power. His playing was extremely inventive, like both Jimmy Page and Hendrix, he reinvented the whole scope of rock playing, deriving a blues influenced sound while cranking and speeding it up, Blackmore is also said to be the father of guitar shredding, combining the classical influence (probably rubbing off from Purple keyboardist Jon Lord) and tapping the fret board, eventually setting the standard for players like Malmsteen and Van Halen. His playing was only matched by his rough attitude, which caused his departure from Deep Purple (multiple times actually) and numerous lineup changes with his band Rainbow.

For this particular compilation, there are differences in the songs as far as the production and performance goes, some bands tend to put the modern touch on the cuts such as Mister Kite's melodic take on "Bloodsucker" as well as "Stargazer," covered by Arabesque. There are, however, many cuts that are far fetched in production from what you might normally expect for a Blackmore related cover such as Eric Zimmerman's take on "Man on the Silver Mountain," which sounds like Devin Townsend crossed with Kraftwerk and Condition Red's version of "Black Night," complete with a violin playing the melodies; making this compilation more interesting. But for cuts that are placed within the whole traditional production role, more closely sounding like the originals, there is "Highway Star" by Winterlong and the dark "Perfect Strangers," covered by Transcendence. Overall the production has been modernized, far from the R&B meets aggressive garage rock classic Metal flavorings, Hammond B-3 is often absent here, which along with Blackmore's guitar work, was, and is, admittedly, the other half of both Purple and Rainbow's musical backdrop, but yet this makes for good ear candy, especially fans of these bands appearing here as well as Blackmore fans.

Again the concrete proof is upon us of Ritchie Blackmore's influence on Metal and Hard Rock guitarists is inevitably there, with a tribute album that is worthy of bearing his name.

Written by Hashman
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
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