FIREBALL

With Deep Purple sculptured In Rock it was quiet hard to make up with the high expectations of Deep Purple's following record. Fireball however made it all come true. In this record Deep Purple became somewhat more professional in their somewriting, which can also be seen as a backdraw: the naivety made In Rock very authentic. Deep Purple shows with this Fireball a more varied record with more subtlety, while still having some great hardrock as well.

Fireball's titlesong is some up-tempo hardrock driven on the drums and guitars. A good introduction with lot's of energy." No no no" has a lazy attitude. It is somewhat slower and has some great organ solo's. The bass is real great in this song. "Demon's Eye" has everything good hard-rock could have: vocals with soul, great guitar interruptions and a fine song structure. It also has some rock'n roll feelings, but with much more soul in it then usually. On this song Ritchy Blackmore shows his guitar skill's, but not like an outburst, but also with soul: sometimes even a bit funky. Anyone's daughter is a country-rock song with some nice storytelling about all the girls he got. Maybe this song is the highlight of the record. More subtle then here, we could not expect of this hardrockers in heart and veins. A great ending song of the first side of my vinyl copy.

The Mule and Fools have some spacerock moments, which might enjoy Hawkwind fans. The drums on mule are great, like Ian Paice is having a drum solo during the whole song. Fools may be weakest track on the record: the intro, couplet and refrain are really great, but the slow spacy guitars last a bit too long and gets somewhat boring. The last track is some good hard- rockin'. This is my favourite Deep Purple record and almost deserves five stars.