DEEP PURPLE IN ROCK

Together with Black Sabbath's debut album, Deep Purple In Rock was the very first heavy metal album. Gone are the classical aspirations of the two previous albums, no orchestras here, also no harpsichords and no pianos or acoustic guitars. This, however, does not mean that it is no longer connected to prog. Since they created a whole new style of music with this album, that fact by itself showed a progressive spirit at least.

We all know who joined the band, and who left etc. so I'm not going to into that here (see other reviews). Now, on to the music.

While Deep Purple's previous self-titled album had been a perfect balance between ballads and rockers, this album contains no ballads whatsoever. It is an all out rock album, just like the title implies. And I can imagine that it shocked a lot of people when the thunderous introduction to Speed King came out of the speakers in early 1970.

Speed King might deceive you, but it is basically a 50's style rocker updated in heavy metal style. Child In Time is another deceiver, with its over ten minutes length you might expect a prog epic, but it is a very simple song with a long middle section. Still, it is a classic and not bad at all, but not really progressive.

While I rated Deep Purple's self-titled album four stars, I give this one only three. The one- sided emphasis on rockers over ballads and the lack of real progressive elements stop me from giving this one four also. Still, In Rock is an album with great historical value and it is a good album too, but not really essential for prog fans.

The bands next album, Fireball would have more prog content but that's another story.