Blackmore's Night
Winter Carols

Imagine the scene: a friend of yours asks you to close your eyes and tells you they’re going to play two albums. They put on the first one: you recognize it in less than a second. The legendary "Deep Purple in Rock," which has influenced your life long ago. Great music, unforgettable. Then, after the first one is over, they move to the second: you hear a Christmas atmosphere begin, one of those strange compilations that come out at Christmas, that you buy for at most 5 euros. After the second one is over, you look strangely at your friend, with a quizzical expression. They smile and say: "Find me a common point between these two albums." If they don’t give you the album title (nor the author), you'll NEVER understand it!!! Absolutely never.

Indeed, who would think that behind these sweet Christmas Eve melodies lies the latest album by Ritchie Blackmore??? His guitar is quite unrecognizable in such an album, so unusual and so Christmasy as to astonish. In fact, this project is quite strange. What came to his mind to release such a piece, released in stores around November 7th, so little rock?

However, if we are honest, this album is not bad at all. It's rather relaxing, featuring a wonderful female voice accompanying the tracks, and then the guitar solos, occasionally, are there. Maybe (actually definitely) it’s not a Blackmore-style album, but it's certainly respectable, and it helps get into the Christmas spirit right now. Moreover, some passages faintly remind of Mike Oldfield (for those who don't know him, someone who really knew a lot).

Note the first track, Hark The Herald Angels Sing - Come All Ye Faithful, where the Christian theme of Venite adoriamo is revisited. Also nice is Wish You Were Here, and the last track, a brief version of We Wish You A Merry Christmas, very charming.

An album that certainly doesn’t need to be bought, but the listening is truly enjoyable.

An early Merry Christmas to all of you!