MADE IN JAPAN

Hard rock wasn't just a genre, it was a promise. A promise to create that moment of ultimate energy; with rhythm, distortion and shrieking vocals. That moment that touches your evolutionary beast. This is actually one of the few albums that really rocks, and Deep Purple made one other rockin' album called 'In Rock'. Roughness is exploited to the maximum and there is no cheese to be found, not even a single second.

Deep Purple '72 had it all. The songs, the musicians and the energy to do these amazing live shows. Guitarist Richie Blackmore with his stylish sound can play subtle, rhythmic and heavy solo's, the organ's sound heavenly distorted, the drums are heavy and the vocals are amazing. Just amazing. Ian Gillan shrieks, screams and sings melodic at the same time. The band just has this amazing sound and the recording of this double live album is also very good.

The good thing about Deep Purple is the willingness to recreate their own compositions and add/change things. There are many extra solo's, new plots and reinterpretations. Furthermore, Deep Purple used some spacey sounds in intro's of some songs and heavily on the twenty minute Jam/song Space Truckin'.

Favorites of mine are the opening track, Highway Star (an historic document to describe the meaning of 'hard rock'), Lazy (amazing version) and Space Truckin' with it's free, almost progressive improvisations. The atmosphere on the whole concert is very good, so every song is worthwhile. The long drum-solo of 'The Mule' is my only complaint.

Conclusion. Though strictly not progressive, Deep Purple clearly shows the potential of adventerious rock improvisations and uses some nice spacey sounds along the way. This is a top band at it's finest hour, but it's also an acquired taste; the band tends to freak a lot. Well, can't give less then four stars for this amazing live album. Definitely one of the best and I would have wished some (modern) progressive rock bands would inspire themselves by listening to this guide 'how to play an interesting rock concert'. The progressive movement has a lot of low-energy live albums that aren't that interesting at all. Anyway, four stars and recommended to every-one who likes rock and related genres.

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