Almost as though answering a salvo laid down a few months earlier by Iommi, Osbourne and crew, Deep Purple came out with this spin.
Rod Evans is out as vocalist and Ian Gillan is in. In other words, from the moment you hear the first track, “Speed King” you realize, this is not your father’s Deep Purple. In fact, on that track, for the first time in four albums, I find the Hammond organ to be a pain in the ass. It gets in the way. The metal is so pulsing, so energized, Blackmore’s fuzz if fuzzier, the bass sounds more like “Radar Love” than anything on the previous records. And what Gillan’s doing with his voice is Robert Plant but without the flowers and grooviness. It’s more Halford than Plant. And on the ferocious “Child in Time” he becomes the 5th instrument, not just something to put the words out on what would otherwise be an instrumental. After listening to “Flight of the Rat” it’s become obvious to me that Brian May MUST have been listening to Ritchie Blackmore and this album when writing some of Queen’s harder rocking stuff. it’s all there.
Nothing on the previous albums can prepare you for this. This is the Deep Purple of notoriety, not the prissy, neo-classical, prog rock. This is cock rock at it’s finest. Hard to believe that in a few months all this stuff turns 40.
Grade: A
ASide: Speed King, Child in Time
BlindSide: Bloodsucker, Flight of the Rat
