For most of my life, I thought that Ritchie Blackmore was influential, but no one ever really captured the magic of his sound. That was until I heard Heaven and Earth’s Stuart Smith, and realized that he may be the next great (underrated) guitarist, cut from the same cloth as Blackmore. Of course, not everyone can claim to have been mentored by Blackmore as Smith was.
Overall, Heaven And Earth feels like the modern-day equivalent of Deep Purple and Rainbow. This is not to say that the band is a wannabe version of two of classic rock’s most important bands. Quite the contrary! They are what should have been the natural evolution of “Deep Rainbow,” if not for the revolving door policy that has always been Blackmore’s M.O.
The similarities between Smith and Blackmore do not end with their brilliant guitar playing. Both Smith and Blackmore hail from England. And just like the original incarnation of Rainbow with Ronnie James Dio, Joe Retta (the dynamic frontman of Heaven And Earth) hails from upstate New York.
As a diehard fan of both Rainbow and Deep Purple, Heaven And Earth has already soared to the upper echelon of my list of current hard rock acts, bypassing most of the bigger names in the genre today.
If you close your eyes and listen to “Hard To Kill,” you are instantly transported back in time to the ‘70s (the golden era of bluesy hard rock). I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…music like this is not at all dated. IT’S TIMELESS!
Hard rock fans often bemoan the current state of the genre, but it may be time to take a step back and evaluate what role the actual music plays in it. While there is probably a higher quantity of talented bands putting out music than ever before, the number of bands that feel larger-than-life are incredibly few and far between. Heaven And Earth is the exception to the rule.
Neither the band nor its individual members are household names, but based on talent and songwriting, they are as good as the legends that came before them. If this band broke onto the scene four decades ago, we’d hold them in the same regard as the bands that laid the foundation for hard rock and heavy metal.