Review: Don Airey – Pushed To The Edge
Don Airey – Pushed To The Edge
Format: CD – Vinyl LP – Digital / Label: earMUSIC
Release: 2025
Text: Martien Koolen
The well-known keyboard/organ player Don Airey has been a member of the notorious hard rock band Deep Purple for more than twenty years now and ‘Pushed To The Edge’ is Airey’s seventh studio solo album. Keyboardist Airey has played on albums with Rainbow (Difficult To Cure), The Company Of Snakes and of course Deep Purple and as a session member Airey showed up on albums of Black Sabbath, Gary Moore, Whitesnake, UFO and even Andrew Lloyd Webber.
On ‘Pushed To The Edge’, which contains eleven new songs, Airey is musically assisted by his Deep Purple pal and guitarist Simon McBride. Airey’s new album is a 100% recognisable hard rock album with that typical keyboard sound, reminding me of bands like Rainbow and Deep Purple of course! Opening track Tell Me sets the tone for this great album, as it is an up tempo old school hard rock track in the veins of Rainbow and Deep Purple, with vocalist Carl Sentance (Nazareth) doing a marvellous high screaming a la Ian Gillan indeed, and the furious guitar and keyboard solo at the end of the track make this one awesome indeed.
They Keep On Running, Moon Rising and Rock The Melody are all true Don Airey tracks and they would not do any worse on a Deep Purple or Rainbow album for sure; especially Rock The Melody could be a classic Rainbow song as well, featuring awesome rocking riffs and swirling keyboard melodies and solos by the master himself. Flame In The Water is the first ballad, a rather sweet -maybe too sweet or corny – song where Simon McBride’s solo saves the song a bit, but not completely, as this is for sure one of the lesser tracks of this album.
Girl From Highland Park, the second ballad-like song is definitely better, an instrumental one with a nice piano intro and some acoustic guitar picking by McBride. However, mister Airey saves the best for last, as Finnigan’s Awake is the highlight of ‘Pushed To The Edge’; an instrumental monster clocking in over six minutes and it is packed with mindboggling keyboard solos, impressive melodies, and some soaring guitar solos as well.
So, overall Airey did an outstanding job on his seventh studio album, although you do not have to expect anything new or not familiar; so, a great album for fans of Rainbow, Deep Purple and Whitesnake for sure, check it out! Listening tip: Godz Of War.
Tracks:
01. Tell Me
02. They Keep On Running
03. Moon Rising
04. Rock The Melody
05. Flame In The Water
06. Out Of Focus
07. Power Of Change
08. Girl From Highland Park
09. Godz Of War
10. Edge If Reality
11. Finnigan’s Awake
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