In the mid 80's Richie Blackmore and Ian Gillian departed from the band Deep Purple to branch out on their own. That left the band in need of a singer and guitar player. They hired Tommy Bolin ex.James Gang guitarist and brought in newcomer David Coverdale who went on to fame as lead singer of Whitesnake to handle the vocals. The band released an album called Come Taste the Band to mixed but mostly positive reviews.

The album was a good one but it wasn't anything like the classic Deep Purple material we had listened to in the past. The reason I said all of this was because this EP from Eight Feet Deep make me think. What would have happened if keyboard player Jon Lord left the band and rather then replace him the band went without any keyboards. What would that Deep Purple album sound like? My quess would be that it would sound pretty close to this CD. Billy 'Pills' Fridrich sounds like a croos between Richie Blackmore and Johnny Winter on the guitar while singer Mike DiMeo has a bit of that Ian Gillian luster in his vocals.

The first song 'Leader' sounded like a song I have heard many times before. I actually thought it might have been a cover tune but it wasn't. This song was worth the price of the EP. The rest of the EP wasn't up to the standards that the opening track was but they set the bar pretty high on 'Leader.'

Recorded at: On Track Recording Studio in Ronkonkoma, Ny. Produced by Fridich and Tom Fattoruso while the engineering and mastering duties went to Tom Fattoruso. Five years ago I would have said that the studio recording was good for an indie artist. Today with all this modern recording equipment to compare notes with this CD lacked that fine edge that I am starting to hear from even the modest recording facilities. I just reviewed one CD from an artist that recorded everything at his home and it blew me away. This recording did not impress me like the vast majority of CD's I have been getting lately. The energy was in the music so I have to give the musicians credit for that.

The material was good hard-rock with Billy Fridrich playing a respectible guitar and signer Mike DiMeo sounding like a blast from the 80's hair band days. The drums were done by a drum program which is grounds for a divorse when it comes to hard-rock. I give the guys a pass on the drum programs because they sounded pretty good. I would hope that if they decide to record a full length CD that they find another studio to record their material and hire a drummer.
The EP gets 3 1/2 stars.