Lion Music return with their second tribute album
this year, this one is in honour of Ritchie Blackmore. As
with the the Uli Jon Roth tribute 'Beyond Inspiration' the
album is made up of Lion Music artist roster, featuring amongst
others Reign Of Terror, Iron Mask, Winterlong, Condition Red
and Arabesque.
As you have probably guessed from the title this
is a collection of Deep Purple and Rainbow classics. With
a bit more of an original song choice than has been covered
on previous Deep Purple and Rainbow tribute albums. Its good
to see The Battle Rages On getting chosen for a reworking.
Mister Kite kick off proceedings with Bloodsucker
(one of my fave DP moments) and their rendition is not too
bad. The solos are not a patch on Blackmore's but that's to
be expected. I also missed the vibe of Jon Lord's Hammond
as this is a more guitar driven affair. However, the updated
sound does work well in this context and is infinitely better
than DP own reworking on Abandon.
Transcendence offer up a pretty faithful rendition of Perfect
Strangers. Not too dissimilar to Dream Theater's version
(on A Change Of Seasons) we see a nice beefed up riff, yet
its the glorious melody of the original that shines through
this version. The chorus sees some great John Sykes' esque
rhythm play go on. The Beethoven esque classical sections
sound as great here, a strong showing.
Arabesque serve up perhaps the ultimate Rainbow
track Stargazer. Musically its
good, but the vocals are pretty bad. Very screechy and home
to a bad vibrato....picture the vocals of Evanescence (god
how did they get on this website!) over the classical backing.
The solo is again not Blackmore but its a good "interpretation"
of with Joop Walters getting a good workout ala the original.
The snake charmer scale is here in all its glory and it does
sound pretty cool with the modern guitar timbres. But ultimately
stacked up to the original it falls short.
Lars Eric Mattson contributes Self
Portrait. Given a slight reworking it does it job well
enough and Alf Wemmenlind's vocals are a welcome sound after
the sonic assault heard on Stargazer.
Joe Stump's Reign Of Terror contribute Sixteenth
Century Greensleeves, as most people know Stump is
a big admirer of The Man In Black and this version is very
good. The extended clean intro (ala Rainbow On Stage) is a
nice bonus to the crunch of the main track, and its all topped
off with Michael Vescera's classy vocals recreating Ronnie
Dio's vocal histronics. Overall an excellent version that
doesn't stray too far from the original yet retains its own
character.
Iron Mask are up next with another Rainbow classic,
Gates Of Babylon. Yngwie covered
this one on his Inspiration album (and IMO bettered the original)
and it must be said Iron Mask have nailed the vibe of the
original. Dushan Petrossi's guitar work is, like Joe Stump,
faithful to the original yet has its own flair that adds character.
The guitar solo is terrific followed by a very good keyboard
solo from Anton Arkhipov before the very classical tinged
guitar comes back in. My only complaint with the track is
that there seems to be a few sonic flaws in places, the bass
drum is mixed too high and at points everything seems mixed
a little too hot resulting in a slight distortion on the track,
still its a very good version of a very good track.
Next up is Headline with the droppped D monster
- The Battle Rages On. This track
is one the most overlooked DP gems so it s great to see it
getting some recognition here. The track sees a heavier reworking
that the original but it still relatively concise in its format.
The vocals do not really do a lot for me but its a good effort.
Condition Red give one of the most different takes
on Black Night. The electric
violin works pretty well on the riff and its not half bad!
The band have played around slightly with the different riffs
and most work well. I particularly like what they have done
to the chorus.
Torben Enveldson offers up
Space Truckin, never one of my fave DP tracks but a
classic nonetheless. Sadly Torben's lead tone comes across
as very thin and super processed, but its nice to hear ex-YJM
vocalist Mats Leven belt out the lyrics.
Man On The Silver Mountain
sees a total industrial reworking, the riff is down tuned
to hell, machine like fx noises all sum up to make this pretty
goddamn unlistenable - ugh!
Luckily Winterlong come along to kick our asses
with their version of Highway Star.
Much praise was heaped on this band in their review of The
Second Coming and its good to say those same qualities are
still here e.g. great vocals and guitar work. Staying pretty
close to the original except a couple of bluesy licks in the
first main solo (which was Hammond Organ on the original)
Thorbjorn Englund does a great job throughout.
Jason Richardson handles Lazy
pretty well, again staying pretty close to the original means
you cannot really go wrong. Some nice guitar work on this
one too.
Condition Red contribute their second track to
the album, this time Still I'm Sad.
A pretty good take on the instrumental version from Rainbow's
debut album. But nowhere near the magnificence that was the
reworking with Doogie White's vocals on Rainbow - Stranger
In Us All.
Well there you have it. This is quite a mixed
bag, the song selection is good but the versions do not always
cut it. There are a few moments that are very good - notably
Reign Of Terror, Iron Mask and Winterlong, whilst Transcendence
do the best job of updating a classic. There is a lot of mediocre
that makes you wonder why it was really included, and also
where are some of the other Lion label artists that you feel
could have been priceless on a Blackmore tribute album e.g.
James Byrd, Alex Masi and Kelly Symonz all spring to mind.
If you are a Blackmore completist or a fan of any of the band
appearing on it, then you will get something out of it, it
not then it your choice.
