It's never easy.
After decades of career, between stages, rivers of sheet music, and many, many successes, it's never easy to find the right motivation to keep writing something that can continue to be appreciated: by oneself and/or the audience, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't matter if you have played with Deep Purple, Dixie Dregs, or Jethro Tull... it's never easy.
The latest "Mark," after the good "Rapture Of The Deep" (2005, Edel), returned to the studio after 7 years with incredible enthusiasm, so much so that they skipped several dates of their 2012 tour (including the Italian ones) to complete their latest endeavor, giving us a work that, in its drafting phase, aroused several perplexities among the most ardent fans: will Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Ian Paice, Don Airey, and Steve Morse be able to give us a new "classic"?
To a similar question, the band's historic vocalist replied: "Now What?! has the excellence and elegance of Perfect Strangers and the wild freedom of Made In Japan". An incredibly uncomfortable, perhaps daring, double comparison, but one that highlights the confidence and trust Gillan placed on such work. Whether this comparison seems exaggerated or not, we could only find out by listening to the album in question.
It must be said that the sonic variety presented by the tracks is remarkable, no piece resembles another, despite the use of the usual song structure ("Verse-Chorus-Verse-..."), but what stands out is, of course, the incredible technique brought into play by seasoned musicians who, despite everything, still seem to be in search of different and inspired solutions, sometimes appearing predictable, other times less so. The arrangements are massive and, in some cases, particularly grandiose (with strings, violins, and more), but they never seem out of place and blend perfectly with the Hard Rock mood of the work, not wild, but certainly elegant and tasteful. From a band of "terrible old folks," we can't forcibly expect the guitar riffs of an "In Rock" or "Machine Head," but plenty of experience and elegance, elements that in "Now What?!" (2013, Edel) abound indeed.
There are, however, a few nice dives into the past like in Hell To Pay, a song with a Gothic intro entirely dedicated to the historic figure of Vincent Price, a famous actor known especially for a series of horror films, and as many as two pieces dedicated to the memory of Jon Lord, the historic keyboardist of Deep Purple who passed away in 2012: Above And Beyond (whose intro is very reminiscent of that of Kashmir by Led Zeppelin) and Uncommon Man, a composition inspired in turn by Aaron Copland's Fanfare Of The Common Man, and surrounded by a splendid initial solo by Steve Morse. Among others, the beautiful rock ballad All The Time In The World stands out, one of the best pieces of Mark VIII.
We are therefore facing an album absolutely above expectations, demonstrating how class and inspiration can endure even after many years of activity, a paradigm often broken by merely commercial moves of which, frankly, we have little need.
Tracklist
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