release date: Nov. 1974
format: vinyl (TPS 3508) / cd (2008 remaster)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,32]
producer: Martin Birch and Deep Purple
label: Purple Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: A) 1. "Stormbringer" - - B) 1. "Lady Double Dealer" (4 / 5) - 5. "Soldier of Fortune" (4 / 5)
9th studio album by Deep Purple released on Purple and produced by Martin Birch and Deep Purple. The album introduces new styles like funk, soul, and more polished pop / rock output than heard before from the band. It features a more subdued and / or marginalised Ritchie Blackmore, which gives more room for keyboards and new styles. It's the last studio album with Blackmore, who would continue a solo career with Rithie Blackmore's Rainbow - later just Rainbow - and released his first solo album in the spring of 1975.
Stormbringer is a bit of a strange album featuring various styles and genres, and it is hard to see an overall idea with the album. The album was commercial step down compared to Burn released 6 months earlier and critics were divided on the album. Needless say, the band members are extremely skilled musicians but the end result is somewhat blurred. The first track takes off like Burn with a strong blues rock and hard rock composition but is then followed by "Love Don't Mean a Thing" and "Holy Man", which are soul- and funk-based compositions far away from anything they'd done before. The first track on the B-side continues a tradition they have repeated several times by putting the perhaps strongest track of the album here, but then funk really takes over again. The album concludes with one of the band's most beloved tracks "Soldier of Fortune", which in some ways is close to Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" classic.
It's what you want it to be. All sorts.
[ allmusic.com 2 / 5, Records Collector 4 / 5 stars ]
