At the time of its release, it was hailed as a landmark album in terms of guitar manifestation as well as intensity. Putting it in perspective, guitardom was waiting for something like this to happen. Someone taking the instrument by the scruff & putting it to submission. Richie Blackmore was a force to behold, he had something new up his sleeves & he wasn't afraid to use it. The ghost of Deep Purple won't hold him back. Adding Dio to the chemistry, there was no turning back.
I purchased this album recently not to marvel at Blackmore's guitar wizardry (there's not much manifested here anyway) but to acknowledge Dio's grand vocal enterprise. I could understand the fanfare but in today's context, coming from a listener like yours truly, it's boring music. Majority of the materials were still hooked on hippie culture of letting magic mushrooms command creativity. Production wasn't great either, the preceding Jimi Hendrix's music was more captivating in terms of soundscapes (not that I'm a fan).
I was listening closely to the distortion offered here instead- not much. Mind you, there weren't any dedicated heavy metal pedal dished out by any manufacturer just as yet. The amps sounded stellar propelling transparent distortion (most probably attributable to natural volume drive) so the mix of clean & dirty tones there was something to behold. These days, if someone mentions classic, transparent distortion, take time to listen to the music here; these are some of the best. In view of this consideration, nobody took bass notes chugging to any hypnotic levels but we know, at about this time as well, Black Sabbath had something going in terms of heaviness. Worth listening to as an academic reference but it's not my type.
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