MADE IN JAPAN

One of the greatest live albums ever. If you're wondering where prog metal's roots lay, this may be one of the starting points, and maybe the most important of them. For it showed that heavy music and prog rock were not incompatible at all. Even the most radical proghead at the time (and boy, did I know some!) could not deny those guys were absolute masters of their instruments and at least two cases (Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord), truly genius. They not only play their classics in great versions, but they proved they could jam, improvise and create like few others during live shows.

Of course those displays of explicid virtuosism would soon become common place (even if many of artists did not have the talent nor the technique to pull that off). But at the time it caused quite a stir, since in the minds of many heavy music was something done by below average musicians, who would try to hide their lack of musical skills under a wall of noise. Deep Purple changed all that. Yes, they were LOUD. heavy and noisy, but they were also outstanding musicians, with great creativity and had vast musical background, able to play classical and jazz. Their chemistry was something quite unique and Deep Purple MKII was more than the sum of its parts.

There was also a great singer in that, under the moniker of Ian Gillan. Wow, the man had a great voice to match the incredible instrumentation around him. He was one of the first to show he could not only scream but also sing very well (Robert Plant never got even close to him live). And they were on their peak at the time. Even the obligatory drum solo is interesting and not just a self indulgent exercise like many (even if I do not see that as a highlight here).

Made In Japan is made only of classic stuff. It was very well recorded for the time and the new CD version has 3 extra tracks (I guess it was the encore part): Black Night, Speed King and a powerhouse version of Lucille. All the new additions are on par with the original tracks. Heavy music and prog were together. Things would never be the same again. Simply essential.