DVD Review: Deep Purple With Orchestra – Live In Verona

DVD Review: Deep Purple With Orchestra – Live In Verona
Eagle Rock Entertainment
All Access Rating: B+

Deep Purple With Orchestra -
Live In Verona 2014

Any list of the world's most spectacular outdoor concert venues would be woefully incomplete without an entry for Arena di Verona.

Originally built in 30 AD, the beautifully preserved Roman amphitheatre provided a dramatic and elegant backdrop for a glorious 2011 performance from hard-rock giants Deep Purple, backed on this enchanted evening by the full instrumental might of the Neue Philharmonie Frankfort and lushly filmed for a new DVD "Live in Verona" released by Eagle Rock Entertainment.

Lending added weight, complexity and richness to a set loaded with familiar classics, the orchestra – obviously relishing the moment, playing with both passion and precision – pushes and prods Deep Purple to go for broke and drive "Highway Star," "Strange Kind of Woman" and "Woman From Tokyo" like getaway cars used in a daring bank heist. It is, indeed, the thrill of the chase that still moves Deep Purple.

Quick cutaways make the action onstage come alive, the cameras expertly capturing Ian Gillan's expressive wails and honing in with artful subtlety on the virtuoso chops of guitarist Steve Morse, drummer Ian Paice, keyboardist Don Airey and bassist Roger Glover – Morse's fluid soloing brilliance drawing most of the attention, and rightly so. And while they plow through "Knocking at Your Back Door," "Space Truckin'" and "Smoke on the Water" with the usual organ-fueled horsepower of a dependable, rugged vehicle that has a lot of miles on it, Deep Purple is at its best here when swimming in the sonorous, mystic oceania of a breathtaking version of "Rapture of the Deep" and giving a soulful rendering of "When A Blind Man Cries." Bonus versions of "Hush" and "Black Night" make this a package worth getting.

Of course, this isn't the Deep Purple of old, some of the fire of youth having understandably diminished over time, although the visually stunning "Live In Verona" proves they're still eminently capable of burning this lovely setting to the ground when properly motivated. And they are in fine form here, even if the bloom is off the rose, so to speak, when it comes to seeing Purple once again perform with an armada of strings and other classical accoutrements.
– Peter Lindblad

CD Review: Deep Purple – Now What?! Gold Edition

CD Review: Deep Purple – Now What?! Gold Edition

Eagle Rock Entertainment/earMusic

All Access Rating: B+

Deep Purple - Now What?!
Gold Edition 2014

At least there's still some gas in the tank. If nothing else, 2013's Now What?!, their 19th studio album, made the case that today's Deep Purple is not at all devoid of fresh musical ideas, even if they seem incapable of crafting something as instantly gratifying as "Highway Star" or "Smoke on the Water."

Shape-shifting intoxicants such as "Weirdistan" and "Apre Vous" were elaborate mazes of epic prog-rock construction, while "Out of Hand," with its sweeping strings and its exotic atmospherics, kept building and building into a majestic piece of sonic architecture. As they did in the old days, when the Mark II lineup were hard-rock royalty, Purple charged into the breach of "Hell to Pay" with youthful vigor and industrious riffs and funked up a driving "Bodyline," before falling back into the shadows with smoky, jazzy fare like "Blood From a Stone," the bluesy "All the Time in the World" and the grumbling, gnarled tribute to a horror movie icon delivered in the dark, spooky camp of "Vincent Price."  

All of these tracks made Now What?! a stylistically diverse listen, full of intriguing and dynamic instrumental passages – especially from guitarist Steve Morse, the former Dixie Dregs' six-string wizard, and keyboardist Don Airey, the two additions who weren't there in Purple's heyday. Packaged with new bonus tracks and a second disc of live recordings, a Gold Deluxe Edition of Now What?! has recently been issued, and it's available in a double CD version or a more lavish boxed set that includes a DVD with a 20-minute interview, a t-shirt, poster and sticker, and all the singles from Now What?!

The real prize here is the 70 minutes of unreleased concert performances stuffed into disc two. Also known as the "Now What?! Live Tapes," it's a rousing collection of Purple classics and newer material, played in European locales like Milan, Italy, and Rome, among others, with improvisational brilliance and high-flying musicianship that hammer these songs into sharpened weapons. Here's where the spirited gallop of "Hard Loving Man," enveloped by Airey's mushrooming keyboard spells, gathers terrific momentum, as does a driving, rollicking rendition of "Strange Kind of Woman," Ian Gillan belting it out to the back row with rawness and urgency. And it's where the slow burn of "Smoke on the Water" grows into a four-alarm fire, and a slithering "Perfect Strangers" hisses and strikes out at its prey, while "Vincent Price" turns into something more sinister and fun.

The sound is warm and clear, as Morse really struts his stuff in these live recordings, showing how adept he is at seamlessly changing character, this chameleon who can master the blues and jazz, while also riffing like a metal madman and soloing into the stratosphere. All pulling together as a powerful unit, Purple still performs with feverish enthusiasm and stunning chops. Age hasn't diminished their skills, although their bland bonus take on Jerry Lee Lewis' "It'll Be Me" may be thrown away as carelessly as expired milk, and the rare, but ultimately lackluster, B-side "First Sign of Madness" doesn't argue for being deserving of greater attention than it's already been given. There are riches to be found in this Now What?! Gold Edition, although some of its luster's been worn away. http://www.ear-music.net/en/news/; http://www.eagle-rock.com/
– Peter Lindblad

DVD Review: Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers

DVD Review Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers

Eagle Rock Entertainment

All Access Rating: A

Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers 2013

None of the members of the Mark II version of Deep Purple could put their fingers on the exact reason why they decided to reunite in 1984, except to say that the timing was right. 

Whenever the question was posed to any of them in the various TV interviews stitched together for the period tour documentary included as bonus footage and providing historical context for the new live DVD "Perfect Strangers," vague, incomplete and stammering answers cautiously escaped their mouths as if they didn't fully understand it either. There was something mystical at work.

Money wasn't the issue. One of the more contentious pieces in the piece, which seems to follow Purple from stop to stop, finds an irritated Ian Gillan bristling at the mere suggestion that a big pile of sweaty cash would entice them to reform when the idea was posited by two TV show hosts clearly angling for an admission that financial remuneration, and lots of it, was what brought them back together after all these years. Gillan said they'd had plenty of lucrative offers to do it since 1973, when the classic lineup simply couldn't bear to continue as they were then configured - his implication being that they would have done it a hell of a lot sooner if that was the only issue holding things up.

There was no explanation for it, aside from the fact that all the planets had aligned for Gillan, Roger Glover, Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Paice and Jon Lord. And certainly none was needed when the magically reunified Mark II crew embarked on a massively successful tour in support of the platinum-selling comeback album, Perfect Strangers, that included this searing, and somewhat mischievous, performance of newer material and older classics Purple gave in Melbourne, Australia one night in '84.

The camera certainly doesn't lie, and neither does the roaring sound and sharp imagery of "Perfect Strangers," filmed smartly and with purpose to conscientiously capture not only the technically brilliant musicianship Purple's always been famous for, but also the explosiveness and wild-eyed euphoria of a group that had plenty of fire left in its belly and was as cohesive as ever.

Firing on all cylinders, Purple slams through a careening version of "Highway Star," riding high-voltage riffs, before getting caught in the wash of the bluesy spin cycle that is "Nobody's Home." With lust in their hearts and a wolfish demeanor, they revel in the surging testosterone of "Knocking at Your Back Door," a song of "low morals," as a devilish Gillian describes it. 

Haunting and mesmerizing, "Child in Time" is dark and beautifully rendered, punctuated by the magnificent, and barely human, screams of Gillan, clad in black leather pants and full of charismatic machismo. Building drama slowly, until the song becomes an exploding star, Purple also smolders in "Gypsy's Kiss," and expands "Perfect Strangers" into something even more exotic and cinematic in scope than on record. Everywhere else, however, the quickened pace of these songs is breathtaking, and the extended jams are furious and full of substantive, agile movements. No noodling is allowed.

The ramshackle, cosmic-hippie grooves of "Space Truckin'" rumble and shake; then suddenly, Purple falls down the rabbit hole of that dizzying chorus and burns up on re-entry. Unexpectedly playful, Gillan and Blackmore break ranks during a brawny, combustible "Strange Kind of Woman" and briefly segue into "Jesus Christ Superstar." And when Purple plows into the anti-war sentiment of "Under the Gun" with righteous intensity, Blackmore's crazed soloing and Hendrix-like showmanship, so gripping here, grows even wilder, with the guitar wizard laying his instrument over an amp and having his noisy, distorted way with it.

Directed for optimum action, with superbly written liner notes, "Perfect Strangers" is the concert film Deep Purple had to release, if for no other reason than to remind everyone that the MK2 lineup had few, if any, equals in a live setting. Nobody plays hard rock with this kind of passion and hunger, not to mention their virtuosity and indebtedness to classical music, just for money. http://www.eagle-rock.com/

- Peter Lindblad

DVD Review: Rainbow – Black Masquerade

DVD Review: Rainbow – Black Masquerade

Eagle Rock Entertainment

All Access Review: B+

Rainbow - Black Masquerade 2013

Ritchie Blackmore was done with Deep Purple. That old bugaboo “creative differences” had reared its ugly head again, as the legendary guitarist had it out once more with singer Ian Gillan, who was brought back for the band’s 25^th anniversary. In 1993, Blackmore walked out, leaving abruptly during a show in Helsinki, Finland.

The parting was not such sweet sorrow for either side, and Blackmore spent little time mourning the divorce. In 1993, he revived Rainbow, a project that had been dormant since 1984. To bring Rainbow back to life, he turned to a rag-tag band of spunky young upstarts, including singer Doogie White, his new collaborator. Hardly a blip on the radar, they stuck around barely long enough to record 1995’s under-appreciated Stranger in All of Us LP – a dark, moody record of traditional melodic heavy metal with flourishes of classical music bombast – and do some touring before Blackmore threw himself into medieval and Renaissance music full-time and turned his back on hard rock.

Largely forgotten by history, this incarnation of Rainbow deserves a reassessment, and it starts with “Black Masquerade,” a rousing live effort unearthed by Eagle Rock Entertainment now available now as a two-CD set, DVD or in digital video and audio formats. Documenting a lively performance in Dusseldorf, Germany, for that country’s “Rockpalast” TV series, “Black Masquerade” is a colorfully shot and thunderously loud powder keg of impressive musicianship and youthful hunger.

Seeing Blackmore – more restrained physically as he shuns the wild histrionics of his gloriously unhinged past – reel off a dazzling array of ruthlessly efficient, full-throttle riffs, searing leads and fleet-fingered arpeggios that he expertly untangles with ease is one thing, but keyboardist Paul Morris is a revelation, combining the vivid coloring and propulsive thrust of Jon Lord with Keith Emerson’s classically influenced gymnastics. The long solo Morris takes during the show is an awakening, creatively playful and athletic but never veering off the intricate course he has set.

More than the sum of its disparate, if well-arranged, parts, the collective Rainbow rides roughshod through a combustible mix of tracks from Stranger in All of Us and classics from Blackmore’s Deep Purple days and earlier Rainbow treasures, charging into pulse-pounding versions of “Spotlight Kid,” “Man on a Silver Mountain,” “Since You’ve Been Gone,” “Burn” and a raucous “Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll/Black Night” medley with reckless abandon and fierce energy. It’s as if they know their time together is going to be brief, so they let it all hang out.

And while the material off Stranger in Us All has less character and meat on the bone than past Rainbow efforts, it does shine on “Black Masquerade,” as Rainbow speeds into the night of the song “Black Masquerade” without brakes and takes a magic carpet ride through the exotic Middle Eastern terrain of the sweeping epic known as “Ariel.” Even more mysterious and ominous, “Hunting Humans (Insatiable)” also comes off here as a cinematic affair, the flowing drama of it heightened by White’s powerful, evocative vocals as it segues into Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” – one of the many classical music ambushes found throughout “Black Masquerade.” White’s personality is infectious, and he is a fine master of ceremonies, displaying charm and a masculine stage presence that almost matches the testosterone levels of Chuck Burgi’s barn-burning drum solo. 

Where “Black Masquerade” the DVD falls short is in its extras – simply put, there are none, aside from the enthusiastic, if overly hyperbolic, tribute written by Jeff Katz. A little visual history lesson on the life and quick death of this particular unit in the form of interviews with key players or a narrated featurette would be a welcome addition. Otherwise, even though this Rainbow lived its own life apart from other more celebrated lineups featuring Ronnie James Dio, Graham Bonnet or Joe Lynn Turner that waged rock ‘n’ roll warfare under the same banner, they come off as something of a cover band – albeit it a great one with Blackmore on guitar. It’s as if they were an imitation that had its run and could not create its own identity. Therefore, it must never be spoken of again.

That’s a shame, because as this explosive, forceful and engaging outing illustrates so effectively, Blackmore might have been well-served to keep forging ahead with this group, even if it’s not the most beloved version of the band.

– Peter Lindblad

CD Review: Deep Purple – Now What?!

CD Review: Deep Purple  – Now What?!

earMusic/Eagle Rock Entertainment

All Access Review: A-

Deep Purple - Now What?! 2013

Cracks were starting to appear in the foundation. Deep Purple, Mark II, was crumbling, as exhaustion from a non-stop cycle of touring and recording were beginning to take their toll. On top of that, internal dysfunction – mostly between guitar wizard Ritchie Blackmore and singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover – was tearing them apart, and yet, they somehow managed to slog through 1973’s rather limp and uninspired death knell Who Do We Think We Are, even though they did come out with guns blazing in the electrifying “Woman from Tokyo.” 

This was the end of Gillan’s association with Deep Purple, at least until 1984’s Perfect Strangers, and Mark II went out with a whimper.

That was 30 years ago. Today, with Blackmore’s time in Deep Purple a distant memory, the proto-metal legends return with their first studio album since 2005, Now What?! The punctuation is appropriately emphatic. Whether it’s an exasperated question they’re asking of themselves or a dare to anyone who thinks they can’t deliver the goods anymore, the title of their latest effort – produced by Bob Ezrin – is open to interpretation. What is clear is that, with guitarist Steve Morse having long since settled into his role as Blackmore’s successor, something Tommy Bolin initially struggled with, Deep Purple is completely comfortable in its own skin and capable of generating audacious instrumental fireworks.

Winding its way through labyrinthine passages and flying over contoured soundscapes, What Now?! can be mysterious and exotic. With orchestral string flourishes vehemently slashing through the air, “Out of Hand” is a cinematic marvel reminiscent of Gillan’s recent WhoCares recordings with Tony Iommi and Zeppelin’s “Kashmir,” as is the ornate “Uncommon Man,” although the ever-shifting moods and tempos make it more of a relic of ‘70s progressive-rock pomp and circumstance than anything else. The same can also be said of “Apres Vous” and “Weirdistan,” both widescreen prog epics that allow Morse and keyboardist Don Airey plenty of opportunity to stretch out and experiment with strange, alien sounds.

On the other hand, in the tradition of classic Mark II Purple, the energetic rocker “Hell to Pay” – stuck in overdrive and running hot – boasts plenty of horsepower, while the smoldering “Blood from a Stone,” with soulful vocals from Gillan, is dark and jazzy, with Airey’s keyboards falling like rain, just as Ray Manzarek’s did in The Doors’ classic “Riders on the Storm.” The bluesy ballad “All the Time in the World” is standard-issue, however, and far less intoxicating, standing in sharp contrast to the mesmerizing fury of “A Simple Song” and the colorful, lively funk grooves of “Bodyline.” Although lacking a signature track, like “Smoke on the Water” or even “Knocking at Your Back Door,” What Now?! effectively holds listeners’ interest in other ways.

In fine voice, Gillan is as expressive as ever, even if he doesn’t quite have the range he used to, but it’s Airey and Morse who garner the most attention – Airey with his forceful, swirling Hammond organ dust storms that pay tribute to the dearly departed Jon Lord and Morse with his solid riffing and classy, finessed leads, the product of a wonderful imagination and great dexterity. Who do they think they are? Why, it’s Deep Purple … that’s who, and the reinvigorated musical interplay between these prodigious talents is remarkably exciting. If this, combined with a well-timed recent episode of VH1’s “Behind the Music” regaling us with their glorious, and oftentimes fractious, history, does not get them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, nothing will.
 – Peter Lindblad

Deep Purple to release new studio album in April

Title has yet to be determined

Deep Purple - Rapture of the Deep

Deep Purple isn’t sitting around moping about another snub from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On April 30, 2013, the veteran proto-metal masters will release their first studio album in the U.S. since Rapture of the Deep.

As yet, the album does not have a title, although Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan has revealed a few working song titles, including “Out of Hands,” “Uncommon Man,” and “Hell to Pay.”

“The title of our new album is still a question mark to all of us … we have recorded a new album, and it’s a fantastic collection of songs,” says Gillan. “At the moment that’s the only affirmative point we can offer.”

Featuring brand new studio material, the album was recorded and mixed in Nashville with celebrated producer Bob Ezrin, who has worked with the likes of Pink Floyd and Alice Cooper, among others. Early word is that the record is mix of classic ‘70s Deep Purple with a progressive attitude and modern production.

These days, Deep Purple’s record company is earMUSIC, which plans on releasing more details about the new album when they become available on a dedicated website where all band members will be able to post and interact with fans: www.deeppurple2013.com.

DVD Review: Deep Purple - Live at Montreux 2011

DVD Review: Deep Purple - Live at Montreux 2011
Eagle Rock Entertainment
All Access Review:  A-

Deep Purple has tried this before. Back in 1969, when the idea of a rock band sharing the stage with an orchestra seemed absolutely ludicrous, especially to so-called “serious musicians” who wanted nothing to do with anything besides classical music, Jon Lord’s ambitions were realized. The long-time Purple keyboardist had composed the three-part movement epic Concerto for Group and Orchestra, and plans were made for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to perform the piece at Royal Albert Hall … with Deep Purple, mind you.

Not surprisingly, as singer Ian Gillan recalls during a lengthy interview included with the new separate concert DVD and two-CD packages Live at Montreux 2011, many members of the orchestra “… had an air about them” and were not keen on cooperating with Purple in any capacity. At that time, classical musicians did not play well with others, which was somewhat understandable. There really wasn’t much precedence for this sort of thing, The Nice’s Five Bridges being the only other deal with the devil hatched between an orchestra and a rock band around that time. A forward-thinking conductor by the name of Malcolm Arnold wasn’t having any of it, however. Gillan remembers Arnold giving the whole orchestra a rather “… brusque ‘pull your socks up,’” which evidently is British code for, “stop acting like bratty snobs and get back to work before I give you what for.” The mutiny quelled, Deep Purple, still clinging to its progressive-rock approach while edging ever closer toward the more straightforward, riff-heavy attack they would unleash on 1970’s In Rock and 1972’s Machine Head, and the Royal Philharmonic ultimately joined forces to produce a performance that – perhaps because of the publicity the event generated – unexpectedly landed their collaboration on the charts.

What was once a groundbreaking proposition, reserved for only the most classically inclined bands of the progressive movement, has become old hat for Deep Purple, having performed with an orchestra several times over the years. Last year, Gillan, drummer Ian Paice, bassist Roger Glover, guitarist Steve Morse and keyboardist Don Airy, Lord’s replacement, went down to Montreux, the Swiss community forever linked to Deep Purple by catastrophe and the classic song, “Smoke on the Water,” inspired by the ruinous casino fire started “by some stupid with a flare gun” at a Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention concert. Backing them this time around at famed Montreux Jazz Festival was the 38-piece Neue Philharmonic from Frankfurt, Germany – under the blue-collar, workmanlike direction of Stephen “BK” Bentley-Klein – and in all likelihood, over time, Purple has learned a valuable lesson from other, more disastrous pairings such as this, and that is, don’t let the armada of cellists, violinists, and whatever other instrumentalists happen to be in the room play pretty and decorate these full-on, hot-blooded rock anthems with a lot of flair and ornamentation.

The buzz word for Gillan and Paice regarding this project is “augmentation.” Comparing the Neue Philharmonic’s purpose to that of Count Basie Orchestra, the two Purple war horses talk about how the orchestra swings and puts a strong shoulder to the grooves of the band’s classic hits, and the orchestra does indeed expand on and enhance them with huge, sweeping waves of sound that seem to lift and carry to heaven tracks like the lushly exotic “Rapture of the Deep” and the swooning instrumental “Contract Lost” – featuring Morse’s soaring, beautifully sketched guitar solo – that opens the doors of perception to a reflective, emotionally powerful “When A Blind Man Cries.” And when called for, Neue provides additional horsepower to “Woman from Tokyo,” “Space Truckin’” and a blazing, brightly lit version of “Highway Star.”

It all comes together on “The Well Dressed Guitar,” where Morse grinds away in brutally heavy fashion while glorious strings radiate blinding light as the crowd, in dazzling unison, raises their hands overhead to clap along with Gillan. Coming down however briefly from that incredible high, the two units launch into a powerful, majestic version of “Knocking at Your Back Door” that’s surges with dark melodic energy. On “Lazy,” Purple takes over, their bluesy breakdowns and uprisings needing no color or nuance, although Bentley-Klein does come down from his perch to offer up a scintillating violin foray to Morse’s clinical six-string dissection and Airey’s smoldering organ blasts. Between that and Airey’s needlessly showy, but nicely balanced solo blend of futuristic keyboard sounds and jazzy piano, “No One Came” works up quite a sweat, with Morse’s tricky lead finishing the job in spectacular fashion.

A bit glitzy, as if begging for a residency at some tacky Las Vegas hotel, and at times losing touch with the earthiness and guts that have always kept Deep Purple grounded, the lengthy Live at Montreux 2011 is, nonetheless, a lively, brilliantly filmed document of a magic night in the life of Deep Purple in a place that’s become to them a second home. The sound has great clarity and richness, while the high-definition cameras, shooting from a satisfying variety of angles and distances, provide a visual feast for the eyes. Packaged with in-depth, and quite candid, interviews with every current member of Deep Purple, plus a smattering of new and vintage footage, Live in Montreux 2011 is a heady rush of concert excitement. And when “Smoke on the Water” rises up like some sleeping giant awakened after around 40 years of dormancy, it fills Montreux with monstrous riffs, massive walls of strings and blaring horns trumpeting what feels like a new dawn for Deep Purple. It isn’t, actually, but for about 115 minutes, it seems as if the band, now having so much fun together, has dived right in to the Fountain of Youth and come out younger and full of vitality. And the Neue Philharmonic had something to do with that.

- Peter Lindblad

CD Review: WhoCares: Ian Gillan, Tony Iommi & Friends

WhoCares: Ian Gillan, Tony Iommi & Friends

Armoury Records

All Access Review: B

Across the WhoCares marquee, in big, bold letters, read the names Ian Gillan and Tony Iommi, icons of a bygone time in rock history. Any pairing of the groundbreaking Black Sabbath guitarist and, for all intents and purposes, the voice of Deep Purple — with apologies to David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes — is bound to raise a few eyebrows, just as it did in 1983 when Gillan joined Sabbath for heavy metal's version of "Plan 9 From Outer Space," the laughably awful LP Born Again and its "Spinal Tap"-like supporting tour.

Long considered the worst album in Black Sabbath's otherwise awe-inspiring monolith of a catalog, Born Again was a debacle — Gillan's hairy-chested bluesy vocals ill-suited for Sabbath's trademark gloom and doom, a problem made even worse by lackluster songwriting. Even the album cover, that demonic infant born with devil horns, fangs for teeth and sharp claws, proved to be comic fodder. And yet, here we, almost 30 years later, with Gillan and Iommi back together to rewrite the wrongs of the past — or at least trying to get by with a little help from their friends — and make some money for charity. Again into the abyss, the two legends gain a measure of redemption with the WhoCares project, whose purpose is to raise money for the music school of Gyumari, Armenia, an area still struggling to recover from the devastation wrought by a horrendous earthquake in 1998.

A two-song digital single, WhoCares features the tracks "Out of My Mind" and "Holy Water," the former an epic, heavy-duty collision of the thick, crushing riffage of Iommi and HIM guitarist Mikko "Linde" Lindstrom, the insistent, surging keyboard swells of Gillan's old Deep Purple mate Jon Lord and the monstrously huge rhythmic wrecking ball swung over and over by Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain and former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted. As for Gillan, he doesn't sound as out of place here as he did on Born Again. There's a seething undertone of menacing madness in his vocals that rises and falls with every pummeling sonic wave, with a seething Gillan dramatically expressing the scrambled thoughts of a man losing his grip on sanity as nightmarish imagery flashes in his brain. Unexpectedly, Gillan seems to have picked up on that undefinable "it" that made Ozzy Osbourne's vocals work so well with Iommi's unique hammer-of-the-gods guitar work.

"Holy Water," though, is more tailored to what Gillan does best. The star power dimming on "Holy Water" — as the supergroup of "Out of My Mind" gives way to less prominent musicians, like guitar duo Steve Morris and Michael Lee, drummer Randy Clarke, bassist Rodney Appleby and keyboardist Jesse O'Brien — Gillan gives a more reflective, contemplative performance, finding solace and comfort in that "Holy Water" that drowns so many alcoholics. An exotic, dreamy, Middle Eastern intro, perfect for a movie about the politics of that war-torn region starring George Clooney, wafts through the air until smashing headlong into a powerful, bluesy train of Hammond organ, noisy guitars and steely bass and drums that slows in the verses, riding on golden rails of acoustic guitar, and then chugs full-steam ahead toward its destination. It's a song that looks ahead, while still managing to seem full of regret and haunted by a troubled past. And Gillan perfectly captures that combination of hopeful yearning and  twinges of repressed pain in thoughtful singing that can only come with years of bold living.

Still, neither track would ever approach the proto-metal classics that Gillan and Iommi recorded with Purple or Sabbath. There's a slow, but strong, current that pulls "Out of My Mind" along that is magnificent to behold,and while able to roll along through one's mind like the Danube, the song labors and meanders to the finish, despite some beautifully drawn twin guitar work from Iommi and Lindstrom near the end. And while there is character, grace and guts in "Holy Water," it's a fairly bland offering that lacks a memorable melody and doesn't seem to notice it is traveling down a road to nowhere. Still, with Iommi and Gillan both drifting outside their comfort zones, the pair seem energized by their reunion and willing to explore new horizons, even as they bask, somewhat, in the glories of their respective histories.

The enhanced CD is fleshed out with a 30-minute, behind-the-scenes documentary of the recording sessions — plus a video for "Out of My Mind" — and it offers interesting insight into the project, inspired by Iommi and Gillan's trips to Armenia to see the damage and recovery for themselves. In a way it perhaps mirrors the motivation Iommi and Gillan might have had in trying to fulfill the potential they saw in their partnership the first time they joined forces back in 1983.

-Peter Lindblad