Close your eyes, bow your head, wait for the ricochet

Deep Purple - In Rock - 1970

After releasing three mediocre albums, and wondering through undetermined musical genres, Deep Purple finally made their most important move in late 1969. They got Roger Glover, a bass player who could also actually write songs, and the amazing, powerful and incredible vocalist that is Ian Gillan.
And then they released this album, which is such a change from their previous work, that I can only imagine the shock it must have been for those who were expecting tentative music and bland singing, and found the relentless and furious rock of "Speed King".
The whole album is actually pretty relentless and wild, and it's not only orders of magnitude better than anything they had done up to that point, but it still stands tall today, and it's been a major influence on hard rock music. Well, it's possibly the first really hard rock album in history. If Black Sabbath created heavy metal with their debut album, I would say that Deep Purple created hard rock with this one.
This album also has one of the best songs in rock history, which is the epic "Child in Time". The song is a tour de force that goes from quiet and melodic to loud and furious and is perfect the whole time. It also showcases the vocal range of Gillan, that can go from a shrilling banshee to a low tenor with effortless ease.
But there are lots of gems here: "Into the Fire" is a heavy classic, and the power chord at the beginning of "Hard Lovin' Man" I'm sure has influenced a whole generation of guitarists.
I love this album, I don't think there are many people out there that haven't heard this one, but whether you have or not, go and play it.

• The music of "Child in Time" borrows heavily from a song called "Bombay Calling" by It's a Beautiful Day, a late 1960s band that still exists today and that I had never heard of until now. They, in turn, borrowed from Deep Purple's "Wring that Neck". 
• The opening track, "Speed King" is a furious rock'n'roll that pays tribute to many rock classics in the lyrics, that mention "Good Golly Miss Molly", "Lucille", "Tutti Frutti", among others. I love how it starts with that distorted solo by Blackmore, that then transitions to a church-like organ that for a second or two sounds a bit like Beethoven's Für Elise. Pure class.
• The mid-section of "Bloodsucker" is one of my favourite musical sections ever. The way the guitar, bass and drums play together shows what a good idea it was to bring Glover in. 
• Another big favourite moment for me is the beginning of "Living Wreck", with the drums fading in and that awesome riff. 
• The vinyl releases back in the 1970s (and probably 80s as well) had liner notes, which were like comments for each track. The ones for "Speed King" said "Just a few roots, replanted", which probably refers to their homage to rock classics. "Child in Time" said: "The story of a loser - it could be you".

Let the Sabbat now begin

Black Widow - Sacrifice - 1970

What can I say? It must have been the times, because we have the second band in the year dealing with the occult in their songs. 

This is a band I know next to nothing about. They existed between 1969 and the mid 70s, and I don't think they were ever really successful.
Unlike Black Sabbath, their style seems to be a bit more oriented towards jazzy and progressive variants of rock, at least in this album.

The album is not bad, and it has some interesting moments musically. The problem is the subject matter. Black Sabbath, with their extremely heavy riffs, slow tempos, and Ozzy's slightly strange voice, still manage to sound a bit scary, even now. 

These guys can't pull that off nowadays, I think. When I hear the music, it's actually pretty good. And when the lyrics aren't so overtly occult oriented, they are quite enjoyable. Nothing to write home about, but enjoyable enough. But when they go full occult, they actually remind me of Spinal Tap!

• The fact they actually have a song called "In Ancient Days", which reminds me of the opening line of "Stonehenge", doesn't help much. 
• And now that I'm watching the video of "Come to the Sabbat", I'm almost expecting someone to point out that "the banshees live and they do live well".

Bonus Tracks

• I mentioned above the influence of a song called "Bombay Calling" in the creation of "Child in Time". Watch this an be prepared to be quite amazed.

• And you can't really expect me to resist the temptation and pass on the opportunity of posting this one here. Even the colour scheme of the video is similar!!

Random thoughts

• In Argentina, "Child in time" was translated as "Chico puntual", which would mean something like "Child on time", as in the child is on time, as opposed to being late. It's one of the funniest in a series of not-too-good translations from the 70s and 80s. Although the translation is funny, it's not the easiest title to translate, to be honest.