Deep Purple – The Battle Rages On – 1992
Oh, just look at the album cover. If there was ever anything that screamed “Sell out!” it’s that. One thing I’ve learned from this series that the roots of Heavy Metal are deep not in the blues, but in psychedelia. Go back and listen to those early DP and BS records and you’ll know what I’m talking about.
So, it’s distressing to see the architects of Heavy Metal consign themselves to the easiest of the genre’s tropes: Medieval mythology.
And the music is following suit. This is, I believe, a good thing for the most part. Gillan sounds less like the Gillan we’ve come to love and more like…Brian Johnson and Joe Perry. Allmusic said it best when it compared them to Def Leppard. Hey, at least they’ve shrugged off the Foreigner obsession.
This is a Blackmore-centric record, which harkens back to a harder sound ala Machine Head. The songs aren’t nearly as interesting, however. And there’s even one called, gasp, “Lick it Up”. It’s not as bad as the title, but holy hell, guys.
Late in the album on “Solitaire” the band finds their proggy-trippy roots and manage to sound, well, like they wanna play with Rush, but at least its not Foreigner, right?
The playing is fine. The album is almost completely unengaging.
Grade: C-
ASide: The Battle Rages On
BlindSide: A Twist in the Tale
DownSide:
