DEEP PURPLE IN ROCK

Having failed to take off as expected after three albums focused on light pop with psychedelic touches and with their bank accounts in the red, Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord decided it was time for Deep Purple to make a change of direction, replacing singer Rod Evans with the portentous tenor Ian Gillan and bassist Nick Simper with the virtuoso Roger Glover, to align themselves on the same frequency of the deadly sound waves with which their contemporaries Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath swept through the early 70s. And the result of that line-up change was "Deep Purple in Rock" (1970), the band's fourth album.

A powerful offering that contributes to further shape and style to the opulent Hard Rock still in the process of consolidation, with Blackmore unloading dense, distorted guitar riffs laced with Lord's timeless Hammond on the thunderous opener "Speed King", the very substantial bluesy riffs that ornament the lilting "Bloodsucker", and to a great extent with Lord's digitated and surgical keyboards and Gillan's incredible vocal register taking the high notes to unsuspected levels in the dramatic and intense "Child in Time", a huge and elaborate piece that borders on progressive rock structures, undoubtedly one of the best songs in Deep Purple's entire discography and in the genre.

And to reaffirm the band's rugged new approach, the Blackmore/Lord duo persist with their dynamic, symbiotic interplay on the supersonic "Flight of the Rat" which features influences from 'The Flight of The BumbleBee' (part of Russian Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's early 20th century opera 'The Tale of the Tsar Saltan'), and on the thick mid- tempo "Into the Fire"; and while Ian Paice's funky drumming and Glover's remarkable bass lines lend some warmth to Lord's sharp keyboards on "Living Wreck", it's only a brief pause for the galloping "Hard Lovin' Man" to pick up the rispidity with Lord's Keith Emerson-esque jam and Blackmore's dubbed out guitar plucking, in another remarkable hard rock essay and end to the work.

The unmistakable and iconic cover of "Deep Purple In Rock" is also a symbol of what the album represented, one of the cornerstones (not to say mountains...) in the history of rock.

Essential

4.5 stars

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