Deep Purple: Machine Head

2013 NOTE: When Machine Head shipped in '72 it was just another album, the latest release by an up-and-coming heavy metal band, stuck in the stack of monthly releases by WEA. Deep Purple was not that big at the time. Nobody knew the story behind the album – now a rock legend. Read this review, I talk about their "studio" burning down. Eventually the tale came out: the group had two weeks off between tours, had gone to Montreux, Switzerland, to record a live album of previously recorded material. When Frank Zappa and the Mothers burned down the concert hall, Deep Purple had to write and record Machine Head in two weeks in a boarded-up hotel. Into the group, I recognized what a great album it was right away, but re-reading this review after so many years you can see where I was trying to acquaint readers with the band. It was years, maybe decades, before people realized what a monument of metal Machine Head really was.