Various
Artists – Re-Machined a tribute to Deep Purple’s Machine Head
Released on: Eagle Records. Release Date: Available now
This is an
interesting one with a collection of various artist’s material having been gathered for
this tribute album to British hard rocking legends Deep Purple, on their
classic album ‘Machine Head.’
For the
most part it’s a pretty good solid album, with really – to me at least – only
one track that I just can’t stand!
We’ll get
to that in the review ...
Otherwise,
it’s really a very well ‘qualified’ album release indeed with some seriously
class names involved, including former (Deep) Purple player Glenn Hughes. – Man, does
this guy ever stop working these days?! It’s like he’s trying to match his
Black Country Communion colleague Joe Bonamassa for recorded output and live
performances!
Incidentally,
Mr. Bonamassa is on this album too, although not playing alongside Hughes.
Also
involved though are Carlos Santana, Chickenfoot, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Steve
Vai and a bunch more folks too.
It opens
with Carlos Santana’s take on ‘Smoke on the Water,’ the track that Deep Purple
are probably best known for.
Carlos is
joined by some fine players, including Papa Roach front man Jacoby Shaddix and
overall this is not a bad take on the classic at all. Very respectable and some
great riffing from Carlos, where he’s stepped out of his comfort zone, it seems
though with ease.
Good one!
Chickenfoot
featuring Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani – Who actually had a brief spell in Purple
himself, after (Ritchie) Blackmore quit the last time around. – Michael Anthony
and Chad Smith take on ‘Highway Star’ and I’m thinking, how will they pull this
off without keyboards? All I can say is they rock it, seriously! Satch plays
Blackmore’s style well and controls it without going as insane as he can
sometimes do, overall it’s a gem.
‘Maybe I’m
A Leo’ gets a makeover from Glenn Hughes, who is joined here by Chad Smith (Red
Hot Chili Peppers, Chickenfoot) and guitar hotshot, Luis Maldonado (John Waite,
Into the Presence) and it drives well, with well taken vocals from Hughes.
Maldonado
is a talented guitarist, as well as producer / engineer and he carries this off
really well, while giving it his own stamp too.
When I saw
Black Label Society were involved, I dreaded having to hear this, as I’m not a
fan, sorry.
It’s
actually not a bad take at all on ‘Pictures of Home.’ It kind of comes across a
little like a heavy Cream, but with Zakk Wylde’s rough edged vocals, but some
ripping guitar too and I was pleasantly surprised.
Next is
actually one of my all-time favourite Deep Purple tracks in ‘Never Before,’
covered here by King of Chaos alias Joe Elliott (Def Leppard), Steve Stevens
(Billy Idol, Vince Neil), Duff McKagan (Loaded, Velvet Revolver, Guns ‘n’
Roses) and Matt Sorum (The Cult, Velvet Revolver, Guns ‘n’ Roses.).
I have to
say, it’s great, I really love this, very good indeed and if you’ve never given
much attention to Steve Stevens' guitar work, then shame on you! This is great!
The next
track ‘Smoke on the Water,’ as covered by The Flaming Lips …, frankly I am just
going to pass by. It’s horrible!
I cannot
even understand WHY whoever was behind this, would ever include The Flaming
Lips. It’s just awful.
Thankfully
‘Lazy’ next, featuring guitarist extraordinaire Joe Bonamassa and vocalist
Jimmy Barnes puts this album back on track, in a fine, fine way! The two are
ably assisted by Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford, Arlan Schierbaum (Heaven and Earth,
Joe Bonamassa) on keys, Michael Rhodes on bass and star drummer, Anton Fig.
Sounds
great, Jimmy, Joe and all the guys are well on their game here, blows me away!
Very good indeed!
You know
something that really always amazes me is how whenever I speak with American
rockers, friends in bands or people I meet at rock shows or wherever, besides
‘Smoke on the Water,’ there’s one specific song they seem to remember or
mention. ‘Space Truckin’.’
I don’t
know I mean yeah, love the song and yeah I remember it taking up one full side
of the four that made up the ‘Made in Japan’ double live vinyl album, but for
me, ‘Highway Star,’ ‘Speed King,’ ‘Burn,’ ‘Fireball’ or even ‘Black Night’
always stood out more for me. That said, I guess muso’s just always looked at
the song as a good excuse to jam for ages, on a Deep Purple riff, which is
exactly what Purple did on that live album, as the original version on ‘Machine
Head’ was just four and a half minutes long.
Iron
Maiden cover it here, getting it down to just under three and a half minutes
and Bruce Dickinson does a fine job on the Ian Gillan screams and there’s two
quickly jammed guitars solo here too. Nicely done guys, it rocks!
‘When a
Blind Man Cries’ is perhaps a strange choice for a rocker to make his favourite
song by a band, but it has been mine for years and when I saw that Metallica
were going to be covering it on here, I really feared the worst.
I have to
say though, I was really impressed …, for the first three minutes of the track
and then they trash it for the final sixty seconds, getting into a punky
thrash.
Why couldn’t they try to stick closer to the original? Ah well …
Final
track here is identified as a bonus track and it’s an absolutely killer,
storming version of ‘Highway Star’ featuring Glenn Hughes, Steve Vai, Chad
Smith and Lachlan Doley on keyboards, who I’ve never heard of before, but he
jams covering the late and truly great Jon Lord’s parts here.
Steve Vai,
wow! I mean he’s always a ‘wow’ player, but he really excels here and it works
just great!
Does he
overplay things – As he did in Whitesnake … - yes, he does, but you know what,
on here it sounds truly stunning!
So, for
the most part then, yes it’s a great tribute to Deep Purple’s classic album,
but the one track from Flaming Lips, should not be on here!
What
Metallica did at the end of ‘… Blind Man Cries ..’ I don’t like it, but that’s
my take, maybe you guys will?
Rating: 3.75
out of 5
