Deep Purple - Machine Head
(EMI - 1972)
(EMI - 1972)
It's Thanksgiving and - without getting all Hallmark and shit - even the gnarliest of us need to take a second to think about what we're thankful for. And what would that be? Heavy metal, of course. Don’t be a fucktard. Metal makes everything better. How dreary and intolerable would life be if you lacked the first four Black Sabbath records in junior high or never had the pleasure of structurally damaging a speaker cone using only a SunnO))) record and a large amount of wattage? We must be thankful for metal, and therefore I want to dig on one of the most "famous but not as famous" metal albums this week.
I know what you're thinking, "Dude, this album isn't obscure! I just heard "Smoke on the Water" six fucking times in a row on the radio! What gives?" I concede, 'Machine Head' may not exactly be obscure, but it deserves a listen - cover to cover - because it is a seriously bad ass early metal album chock full of riffs that make you wonder if Deep Purple will sue Clutch or The Sword (both of whom are supreme masters of ass kickery and I mean no disrespect) at some point. Just because they didn’t talk about Satan doesn’t mean it wasn’t metal. The solid musicianship and unreal backbeat throughout this album will freeze your face all squirrelly just like your mom warned you about.
People talk about the origins of metal and immediately bring up Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin in the early 70's. Deep Purple was right in the mix with both those bands, and they had something the others didn't - a gnarly organ player. Sure, Iron Butterfly had an organ player, too, but they only had one song worth talking about for maybe a minute, ever. John Lord could shred the shit out of a Hammond and proved organs could be metal too. Hell, the reason "Smoke on the Water" has such a heavy ass legendary riffs isn't because of the guitar. Listen close at 00:18 and 01:25, it's the organ!
Maybe I’m just a sucker for bad ass organ shit. And maybe that’s because dirty Hammonds sound fucking awesome. Any instrument that takes four dudes to lift has to be packing some serious tone.
It kind of breaks my heart to see tracks like "Highway Star" and "Smoke on the Water" turn into fodder for the zillion cheesy guitar video games that are inescapable these days. I also hope it's exposing a whole new generation of potential metalheads to the real shit, because their parents probably still listen to Bon Jovi and therefore are failing as parents. Again, I have to stress that you go listen to this album start to finish, and by the drum solo during the album closer "Space Truckin'" you will be experiencing peak levels of stokage. Plus, who wouldn't want to go space truckin'?! SIGN ME UP!
Brilliant!!
ReplyDelete