ABANDON

OK, I am not following mainstream and giving it 4 stars diverges a lot from progarchives scores. So I must defend in details this rating of mine. Let's see if you readers at least understand my reasons; agreement may not be possible :

1 - I do appreciate changes, as I set clear in another review; and Abandon differs a lot from Purpendicular or any other Deep Purple album.

2 - Those changes led them to release what I consider the heaviest album of them. It was very good to see them challenging themselves is this direction, even if there is more weight and less prog here. It didn't bother me although I understand it may not be welcome here; low ratings reflects that...

3 - There are strong compositions here; at least for my taste. The first half being better than the last one. Songs 1, 3, 4 and '69' really got my admiration. A special comment must be set do "Don't Make Me Happy"; this is a song where Ian's voice really shines in extraordinary way, which leads me to consider him one of the two best voices that sings hard rock. It is like "Fools" from "Fireball" and "Mitzi Dupree" from "House Of Blue Light". These are songs that elevates overall quality of their albums; and I would not recommend another singer to cover them.

As a conclusion this is a three stars album. If you miss Mr. Lord shinning Hammond keys, consider it was exchanged by heaviness supported by bass and guitar. I rouded it up one star because it was a bold effort of the band to change and innovate. I like heavy music, and for those about heavy metal this is a work that deserves the receiving of a good amount of attention...