This is a release of a concert Deep Purple did in 1993 in Birmingham. It was released on DVD back in 1994, or parts of it were at least, as Come Hell or High Water; a note: a different concert was used for the CD release entitled Come Hell or High Water which also came out in 1994. I’m not sure of the logic there, of releasing two different concerts under a single title, but whatever. When this was released in 2007, Ian Gillan issued a statement telling people not to buy it as he thought it was one of the band’s worst concerts. I’m not sure what he’s talking about exactly; I thought it was frigging tremendous. It’s everything you want from a band like Deep Purple live: ferocious, frenzied, and incredibly loud. The remastering is nothing short of stupendous; sound quality is amazing. It’s just two discs of really great music. The version of Smoke on the Water here is less than I wish it was since a large portion of it is given over to the audience just singing the song and bellowing the chorus, etc. and I was disappointed with the cover of Paint It Black which only does the actual song for about a minute before spending the remaining seven minutes of the track in a really free-form jam that doesn’t even really utilize the structure of Paint It Black. It’s not a bad jam, but I was really excited to hear a Deep Purple cover of Paint It Black and I didn’t really get that. But otherwise, this album is really a lot of fun. 3 ½ stars.
tl;dr – double disc remaster of 1993 concert features amazing sound quality and a fun, ferocious energy. 3 ½ stars.