Interview By Ali Blackdiamond

As part of our Tribute To Ritchie Blackmore week, we have invited well known names in the world of rock and metal to share their thoughts about Ritchie. For the next in the series, we have Henrik Flyman, producer, composer and guitarist with Scandinavian melodic metallers EVIL MASQUERADE. The band are preparing for the imminent release of their new album “The Digital Crucifix” next week on April 22nd.

You can read some excerpts from the interview below and listen to the chat in full on the player:

Henrik expressed his thoughts about Ritchie and his work:

“I’ve followed him from DEEP PURPLE, then moving on to RAINBOW, who were probably even better for me. Especially the first albums with Dio, where I thought his songwriting was absolutely brilliant.

Returning again to DEEP PURPLE with the “Perfect Strangers” album, which I think is one of the best albums they ever did, an absolutely fantastic album and songwriting. It feels like it has a lot of Ritchie Blackmore in that one.

When he moved onto BLACKMORE’S NIGHT, I don’t know what I expected, but I was extremely disappointed. I think maybe I expected a new RAINBOW, some hard rock and it was absolutely not. So, I lost him there for many years and then I picked him up again around 2000 and started to check out the BLACKMORE’S NIGHT albums again.

When I checked out the first one again, I can’t understand if I was on drugs or something as it’s brilliant. I think I had the wrong expectations and I didn’t give it chance. And now I can say the first, second, fourth and fifth albums I hear frequently, several times a week, which I can’t say about many bands.

I don’t think Ritchie ever got lazy and even though I don’t appreciate the more current BLACKMORE’S NIGHT albums as much as the early ones, I think they work hard writing new music, they still have something to prove. Some people can get boring with such a long career, but Ritchie hasn’t and I really like him for that.Primarily as a songwriter I respect him tremendously.”