SLAVES AND MASTERS

Released in 1990, 'Slaves and Masters' is Deep Purple's 13th studio album. With all of DP's albums, this one holds the distinction that it is the only album released by the Mark V line-up of the band, even though the line-up was active from 1989 to 1992. The Mark V line-up was exactly the same as the famous Mark II line up with one exception: Ian Gillan had been fired from the band (again) and Joe Lynn Turner, former lead singer for 'Rainbow' from 1981 to 1983 and then later for Yngwie Malmsteen. Ian Gillian is the lead singer most recognized from DP, and previously, he had been replaced by David Coverdale in 1973, then readmitted to the band in 1984, only to be fired again in 1989.

For 'Slaves and Masters', Turner definitely brought his 'Rainbow' influence with him as many fans think this album sounds more like an album from that band even though the other members, Ritchie Blackmore, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice were all regular members of DP. Apparently, the other band members considered hiring Jimi Jamison (Survivor) to sing on this album, but he, thankfully, was not available. However, even with Turner, the critics panned this album calling it too lightweight and weak, more AOR than anything else released by the band. Jon Lord says that he never recognized this album as a DP album, while Turner says it was the last great DP album.

Turner's vocals definitely don't have the power and emotion that are often present in Ian Gillian's vocals, and in reality, there just isn't any comparison as Turner definitely sounds more radio friendly than DP ever sounded. His vocals also don't have any distinct sound to them, so with this more accessible sound, the album could have easily been from 'Rainbow', 'Europe', or 'Bon Jovi' as much as it could be from DP. It sounds like pretty much most of the pop-metal that came from the 80 and early 90s.

It's not all a wasteland of middle of the road blandness however as 'King of Dreams', the opening track, proves with a good amount of Lord's organ, and the appearance of some organ solos throughout some of the tracks also help one to hear shades of DP from before, but its never enough to raise it to a higher level. Blackmore gets in a few good guitar licks and riffs here and there, but again, most of the punch is gone as the songs are filed down to near-pop music levels. The fast boogie does shine through on the instrumental break of 'Fire in the Basement', but the fire from the instrumental breaks gets doused by the vocal melody. Nothing else much happens on the rest of the album until you get to the last track 'Wicked Ways' which, during the instrumental break, the tempo slows down and you get some nice strings and guitar similar to the work on 'Perfect Stranger', but by now it is too little too late.

Turner would remain for the tour for this album, but DP was pressured to bring back Gillian for the Anniversary tour that was coming up, so they nixed Turner and Gillian returned, this time to stay. Unfortunately, DP was left with this rather deadweight album as a stain on their discography. Yes, they had released some mediocre albums in the past, but this one is just too boring and AOR sounding, an album where DP sounds like they are trying to be inspired by 80s and 90s pop-metal when they should have been showing them how it should be done.