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Kalle Johansson
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Not disappointing - despite edits

I'm going to divide this review into two parts, the first is a more technical review of the DVD and in the second part I'll make some notes on the tracks. My ratings are from 1 to 10 where 10 is the best rating of course.

Picture: 7
The picture quality is good, no doubt about it. The only thing I can't understand is that since it's recorded for DVD it's not presented in 16x9 format.

Sound: 9
Very good indeed, especially the DTS track is good. As a comparison to the Total Abandon DVD the sound on Perihelion is a little more 'rough' but I think this actually works as a benefit for the songs, it suits rock'n'roll perfect. It also sounds good in stereo but the true glory of this mix is in the DTS track (Dolby Digital 5.1 sounds very good as well, exactly the same mix of course).

Now for a little track analysis:

1. Woman From Tokyo - Solid version, starts up a little slow, the energy increases as the song goes on and towards the end it really rocks.
2. Ted The Mechanic - Rocks like hell, nice organ work from Jon after the guitar solo.
3. Mary Long - This song sounds very good live, high energy level.
4. Lazy - Great intro by Mr. Lord, love the way he attacks his Hammond for the first riff, blistering.
5. No One Came - What a funky groove. First let down of the DVD though, they have edited out the strobe lighting part, don't know why, maybe the cameras couldn't capture this?
6. Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming - Good version, but I prefer the RAH version.
7. Fools - The power in this version is astonishing, really, really good.
8. Perfect Strangers - I actually think the version on TA is better.
9. Hey Cisco - Wow, extremely tight version.
10. When A Blind Man Cries - Absolutely wonderful, Jon's organ solo is very impressive, so much feeling in it.
11. Smoke On The Water - Solid, nothing spectacular, to bad they didn't continue to rock at the end when Lords Hammond is screaming... Here they have also edited out the Riff-raff before the song - more on this later.
12. Speed King - Rocking version, best Ian Paice solo available on DVD yet. They seemed to have edited out some bits here as well.
13. Hush - Let me quote Baloo from Disney's The Jungle Book: Man, what a beat.
14. Highway Star - Probably the best version of Highway Star recorded since Made In Japan, the energy level is unbelievable.

Overall thoughts:

This has quickly become my favourite Deep Purple DVD (and I have all the others). Very good show all the way through, Gillan is in top form and the other guys are smoking.

The only let down is that they have edited some parts out and in Smoke and Speed King it has probably to do with some copyright licences or something like that, but my only advice to any Deep Purple fan (or non-Deep Purple fans for that matter), is to buy this DVD, you won't be disappointed!

Kalle Johansson

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