Blackmore's Castle - A Tribute to Deep Purple and Rainbow CD
CD's and DVD's
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Blackmore's Castle vol I |
CD Lion Music |
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1. Mister Kite - Bloodsucker 2. T ranscendence – Perfect Strangers 3. Arabesque – Stargazer 4. Lars Eric Mattsson – Self Portrait 5. Reign of Terror – Sixteenth Century Greensleeves 6. Iron Mask – Gates of Babylon 7. Headline – Battle Rages On 8. Condition Red – Black Night 9. Torben Enevolden – Space Truckin’ 10. Eric Zimmermann – Man on the Silver Mountain 11. Winterlong – Highway Star 12. Jason Richardson – Lazy 13. Condition Red – Still I’m Sad |
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Blackmore's Castle vol II |
CD Lion Music |
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1. Domain – Stormbringer 2. Michael Harris – Lady of the Lake 3. Dogpound – Mary Long 4. Orion Riders – Burn 5. Daniel Flores and Friends - I Surrender 6. Baltimoore – Kill the King 7. Rolf Munkes/Gerald Kloos – All Night Long 8. Man on Fire – Maybe a Leo 9. Chris Catena – Mistreated 10. House of Shakira – Lady Starstruck 11. Takara – Can’t Let You Go 12. Chris Heaven – Soldier of Fortune |
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Reviews: |
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 VARIOUS 'Blackmore's Castle Volume II' Lion Music (2005) The second instalment of Lion Music's tribute to Ritchie Blackmore. The album sees various acts from Lion Music's roster play a nice selection of material from Deep Purple to Rainbow (all eras). Domain deliver a modernised Stormbringer, whilst Michael Harris offers a good version of the Long Live Rock N Roll gem Lady Of The Lake. Dogpound bark out Mary Long where sadly some of the originals more melodic sensibilities are lost. Orion Riders take on Burn suffers from a poor mix which extinguishes the offering somewhat. This disapointment is more than made up with the killer version of I Surrender by Daniel Flores and Friends. Kill The King by Baltimoore is the same track that appeared on their covers album from 2004 and it still comes across as a solid faithful interpretation. All Night Long gets a kick up the arse thanks to Rolf Munkes and Gerald Klos, here the vocals are excellent, whilst the modernised take on Maybe I'm A Leo by Man Of Fire still has me scratching my head several listens later. Chris Catena offers up Mistreated whilst House Of Shakira bang out a barnstorming version of Starstruck. Chris Heaven covers Soldier Of Fortune whilst star of the show award goes to Takara for their superb rendition of Can't Let You Go. Here Michael Flatters vocals and Neil Grusky's guitar evoke the best of Blackmore and Turner. As far as tribute albums go, Blackmore's Castle 2 is a better offering than volume 1, and whilst it might not be essential listening, it is a fun listen that will be sure to appeal to fans of Ritchie Blackmores classic works. Rating - 75% www.virtuosityone.com
VARIOUS 'Blackmore's Castle Volume II'
Lion Music (2005) www.lionmusic.com
Various
Artists––Blackmore’s Castle, Lion Music, 2003
Added: November 16th 2003 Blackmore's Castle - A Tribute To Deep Purple
& Rainbow
Genre: Progressive/Power Metal Ritchie Blackmore has been one of the best guitar players in the world for nearly 40 years. His legendary career started in the late 60s with Deep Purple, and then continued with Rainbow. Deep Purple reformed in the 80s and then Blackmore formed his own group, Blackmore's Night. He has influenced countless guitar players in his long and storied career. This much deserved tribute album focuses on the Deep Purple and Rainbow era. Lion Music utilizes its stable of talented progressive and power metal musicians to create an excellent tribute to Blackmore. The interesting thing about Blackmore's Castle is the choice of songs. Notably missing are hit singles like Deep Purple's "Hush" and "Smoke On The Water" and Rainbow's "Stone Cold" and "Street Of Dreams." I like the fact they dug a little deeper and picked songs from a variety of albums from Deep Purple's 1972 Machine Head to 1992's Battle Rages On. Some of the artists featured on this CD include Lars Eric Mattson doing "Self Portrait", Winterlong covering "Machine Head", and Arabesque doing an interesting version of "Stargazer." Blackmore's Castle is also a good combination of faithful covers and artists putting their own spin on Blackmore's songs. It's a highly recommended CD for all power metal, progressive metal and of course, Ritchie Blackmore fans. Standout tracks include "Bloodsucker", "Highway Star," and "Space Truckin." Rating: 8 /10
Chad Bowar www.suite101.com Blackmore's Castle - A Tribute To Deep Purple
& Rainbow
8/10
BLACKMORE'S CASTLE - A Tribute of Deep Purple and Rainbow Ritchie Blackmore has without a doubt really left his mark on the music scene. If I was
to think back on what made Blackmore stand out amongst the rest, I would probably think
immediately of 'Death Alley Driver' from Rainbow's 'Straight Between The Eyes' album. That
solo he does just had an effect on me and still does to this day. It's only fitting that
if everyone get's a tribute, then Blackmore should as well. This tribute is a bit
different in most due to the fact that it covers not only Rainbow, but Deep Purple as
well. A double does of great music from 2 now legendary bands. What I find truly
impressing about this release is the caliber of the acts that contributed, some I had
never heard of. These bands are absolutely rock solid and do some very good renditions of
the songs they chose to cover. Some of my favorites include 'Bloodsucker' by Mister Kite,
'Perfect Strangers' which was already one of my favorite tracks by Deep Purple which is
done by Transcendence, 'Self Portrait' by Lars Eric Mattsson, 'Sixteenth Century
Greensleeves' by Reign Of Terror, the classic 'Space Truckin'' by Torben Enevoldsen, 'Man
On The Silver Mountain' by Eric Zimmerman who also mastered the album, and 'Highway Star'
done by Winterlong. There really isn't any weakness on the disc and it does what it sets
out to do. It honors a great guitarist that played a major role in two bigger than life
bands. Very cool tribute album. Heavy Metal Resource
Various
Artists; Blackmore’s Castle – A Tribute To Deep Purple & Rainbow Lion Music Oftentimes these tribute albums are everything but tributes to the artists in questions. More like a disgrace sometimes. This one is not too bad though. Actually Condition Red’s version of “Black Night” is quite good, and so are a number of other songs on this comp. Make sure you also check out Winterlong, Lars Eric Mattsson and Arabesque on your way out.
Various Artists - Blackmore’s Castle - A Tribute to Deep Purple and Rainbow
So you are thinking, this is what, the Umpteenth compilation that pays tribute to just
about anything Deep Purple related (not to mention a few Dio related cuts for when he was
in Rainbow). When comparing this to all the others, this is fairly a strong tribute
compilation, standing up amongst many others. For the most part, Blackmore’s Castle
is mostly centered on Lion Music artists, which pretty much speaks for itself, seeing that
the majority of the artists on that label are fairly top notch.
Blackmore himself is worthy of any tribute, due to the stature of being one of the godfathers of Metal guitarists; and not to mention the fact that along with Hendrix, he was one of the first to wield a Startocaster beyond it’s otherwise twangy tones and hotwire the Marshalls with unbelievable power. His playing was extremely inventive, like both Jimmy Page and Hendrix, he reinvented the whole scope of rock playing, deriving a blues influenced sound while cranking and speeding it up, Blackmore is also said to be the father of guitar shredding, combining the classical influence (probably rubbing off from Purple keyboardist Jon Lord) and tapping the fret board, eventually setting the standard for players like Malmsteen and Van Halen. His playing was only matched by his rough attitude, which caused his departure from Deep Purple (multiple times actually) and numerous lineup changes with his band Rainbow. For this particular compilation, there are differences in the songs as far as the production and performance goes, some bands tend to put the modern touch on the cuts such as Mister Kite’s melodic take on “Bloodsucker” as well as “Stargazer,” covered by Arabesque. There are, however, many cuts that are far fetched in production from what you might normally expect for a Blackmore related cover such as Eric Zimmerman’s take on “Man on the Silver Mountain,” which sounds like Devin Townsend crossed with Kraftwerk and Condition Red’s version of “Black Night,” complete with a violin playing the melodies; making this compilation more interesting. But for cuts that are placed within the whole traditional production role, more closely sounding like the originals, there is “Highway Star” by Winterlong and the dark “Perfect Strangers,” covered by Transcendence. Overall the production has been modernized, far from the R&B meets aggressive garage rock classic Metal flavorings, Hammond B-3 is often absent here, which along with Blackmore’s guitar work, was, and is, admittedly, the other half of both Purple and Rainbow’s musical backdrop, but yet this makes for good ear candy, especially fans of these bands appearing here as well as Blackmore fans. Again the concrete proof is upon us of Ritchie Blackmore’s influence on Metal and Hard Rock guitarists is inevitably there, with a tribute album that is worthy of bearing his name. Rating: 7/10 Hashman - 11/26/03 www.revelationz.net
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