What can be said about an album that deserves six stars out of five, one that has garnered unanimous praise for decades? Even trying to be as objective as possible, setting aside my personal preferences for this band, we've attempted to find a single flaw, but there isn't one. It's difficult, if not impossible, to find any faults when faced with 40 minutes of absolute mastery, where soaring, immeasurable vocals, a fiery and awe-inspiring guitar, a booming and exuberant Hammond organ, and one of the most powerful rhythm sections one has ever heard, make "Machine Head" a true rock classic, one of those records that only one band in a million manages to create.
Recorded during a time when Deep Purple were on the verge of disbanding due to enormous tensions and the egos of each of its members, they achieved their absolute musical peak with this work, thanks to the immense creativity and instrumental zenith reached here.
“Machine Head” is undoubtedly one of the greatest guitar albums of all time, and not only because it contains the mother of all riffs with the immortal “Smoke On The Water”, arguably the most famous rock song of all time, but also because of the legendary duels between Jon Lord’s powerful and haunting Hammond organ and Ritchie Blackmore’s razor-sharp guitar on every single track. But at the same time, the song structures are far more intricate than they initially appear, with a great deal of interplay between all the instruments, yet they still feel spontaneous.
All of this is reflected in the opening and incendiary “Highway Star”, a true classic for the band with its frenetic rhythm, which for many was the archetype of speed metal, or in the superb and progressive “Space Truckin’ ”, while “Lazy” showcases the group’s experimental and jazzy side. Meanwhile, “Maybe I’m A Leo” and “Pictures Of Home” are tracks that provide a moment of calm in an album as frenetic as it is admirable from beginning to end. If the album “In Rock” had already put them on the world map of heavy rock, and the following “Fireball” would definitively confirm their status, “Machine Head” would elevate them to true global stars, and the subsequent “Made In Japan” would place them at the absolute pinnacle of rock music in the 1970s.
