Monday, May 4, 2015

Deep Purple - Long Beach 1971

Here we have another release from "The Official Deep Purple (Overseas) Live Series" of a concert that was previously available  for quite some time as a poor sounding bootleg. This new "official release" comes from original tapes, though not a multichannel recording.

This show was recorded for a radio show on July 30, 1971 in Long Beach (California) with the permission of the band. Deep Purple was on tour promoting the album "Fireball" in the United States and give us this amazing set that is only four tracks long but that clocks in at over 70 minutes of music. "Speed King" opens, followed by"Strange Kind Of Woman" (unique theme of the album "Fireball" promoted with that tour),"Child In Time" and traditionally lengthy edition of "Mandrake Root" as has been presented on previous live recordings.

Friday, May 1, 2015

Soto - Inside the Vertigo

Jeff Scott Soto is BACK! And with a metal vengeance. He has always had a metal edge, but this new band release feels bit heavier than we normally think of when thinking of Soto's work.

His excellent melodic vocal style is here, but with an edge and heaviness that in places reminds me of Chad Kroeger (Nickelback - eeek). And I guess I am not the only one to think so, as after thinking this I read another reviewer who stated "There are songs that sound heavy like Metallica, progressive like Dream Theater, commercial like Nickelback, and funky like Talisman."

All of this to say, we have one amazing release here and should appeal to most any melodic metal/hard rock fan. While there may not be anything really new offered here style-wise, in the overall catalog of Jeff Scott Soto release, this one stands strong as one of his best, and could easily capture much attention on hard rock radio. I for one will be spinning this disc over and over for some time.