DEEP PURPLE In Rock

3. Child in Time (10:15) 4. Flight of the Rat (7:52) 5.

Into the Fire (3:29) I only have the original copy (Disk1) and as such, my comments do not refer to the extra material added on Disc2. single tune had great success and wider public appeal, advancing music and providing inspiration to a great many artists to follow. Here, solid compositions, great guitar riffs abound along with spirited keyboards and Gillan's fantastic voice on every single piece, making it hard to single out any song at the expense of the others.

There is not a weak one on this album, rarely matched by other, noted artists. In Prog terms, Jon Lord's relentless use of the Hammond B3 demands recognition, while the rest of the band are also true professionals. "In Rock" will always remain part of my collection.

Posted Monday, September 12, 2005, 18:40 EST |
first rock bands I listened to in my life. This album is definitely their best. I am satisfied with the classification, too.

While DP are a classic hard rock band, they definitely influenced the appearance and advance of both prog and metal. Speed King - A heavy metal song. It was some of the heaviest stuff there was in early and haunting, slower organ solo from Lord.

Great, great song, but nothing prog here. Deep Purple in general has amazing musicians. Blackmore will always remain the most influential guitarist of all time for me.

Same with Pace, my top drummer after Bonzo (RIP). Lord's organ will never cease to amaze me either. The sound of his organ fits perfectly into the band's heavy music and his solos add great diversity to the music.

Bloodsucker - Fabulous song. Flawless, beautifully crafted. Great arrangements, and lyrics.

It is somewhat resembles the first track by its structure. It's as catchy, has a very bright riff, and an impressive double solo in the middle that starts with guitar before the organ comes in. The only problem with it is that it's so great its four minutes feel way too short!

Child in Time - THE masterpiece of the band, IMO the best composition they've done over their 35 year career. Song starts with a haunting intro led by the organ that If you've been bad, oh lord I bet you have Remember it off the top of my head! As the couplet ends, the music starts to grow louder and faster.

Gillan starts slowly wailing, and proceeds to screaming as the music grows from a quiet organ led melody into heavy metal. Gillan's incredible vocal power keeps growing until he is screaming on top of his lungs. Then it breaks off with a powerful upbeat instrumental part and proceeds into a screaming guitar solo that changes its rhythm into a faster, energetic two minute solo.

Once Ritchie is done, Lord comes in with a very speedy and impressive organ solo that reminds me of one traditional Russian dance. When it's over, the heaviness breaks off and we hear the intro and the same lyric verse again. Then the band repeats the "growing" part that we heard before the solos.

It feels like it advances a bit faster now then in the beginning. The music reaches absolutely incredible power, you gotta hear it to understand. The composition ends with a short organ solo and screaming vocals.

This song is sooo prog, pyre genius. It's amazing. Flight Of The Rat- Second longest song here, probably my second favorite off the album.

A very energetic composition, it sounds much more like first two songs rather than Child In Time. Yet, despite it seems simple and catchy, it's actually much more complex if you dig a little deeper. The bass, the drums, the keys are all very diverse and technically brilliant.

Multiple transitions and drum rolls make the music diverse and exciting, while the tune remains simple. The drums are incredible on this song. Try listening to it once concentrating just on drums.

Purple's traditional lengthy and brilliant guitar and keyboard solos are, of course, a must. The song ends with a great drum Into The Fire - The biggest radio hit off the album, this is a short, simpler hard rocker with the DP trademark structure; intense drumming, catchy riffs, brilliant solos are all Living Wreck - Another song in the same hard rock key. The lyrics are quite funny, masterful musicianship and great songwriting as usual.

Quite a few drum rolls here that Hard Lovin' Man - A (relatively) long, capital closing track. Overall, it feels slightly heavier and fasted than the previous songs, riffs are solid and fast. Here we have a defined drum rhythm that remains throughout the song.

The keyboard solo has a more electric and spacey sound than all others on this album. As usual, it is followed by a brilliant guitar solo. Another solo finishes off the song, and the album with it.

Overall, a masterpiece. One of the greatest albums ever done IMO. Pretty much accessible to anyone, whether you're a progger or a metalhead.

Thanks for reading, now go get the album:) Posted Monday, September 12, 2005, 21:19 EST |
When Deep Purple was founded, all members mixed an interesting musicial curriculum vitae: singer Ian Gillan had done a wide range of musical styles, drummer Ian Paice was influenced by Buddy Rich, bass player Roger Clover had played folk, guitarist Ritchie on piano and organ. They started to blend rock, blues, jazz and classical, rehearsed very often, did an awful lot of gigs and ..

. THEN DEEP PURPLE CREATED THE HEAVY PROGRESSIVE ROCK SOUND! So please stop nailing Deep Purple as pure hardrock, they added far more variety and musical ideas to their music than bands like Iron Maiden, Motorhead and Black Sabbath, they played hardrock!

Deep Purple their finest hour on a studio record: a dynamic and creative rhythm-section, a pleasant!), a top-notch keyboardplayer and a super talented guitarist, exciting soli, outstanding interplay, strong and catchy melodies and rhythms. My highlights are the two an excelent soli on organ and guitar!

This album had so much more success than its predecessors that to many people, 'Deep Purple In Rock' was their debut. In fact, they'd done 4 albums prior to this, plugging away firstly as a proto prog outfit, drawing inspiration from Vanilla Fudge and Iron Butterfly. They replaced their singer, Rod Evans, a rather undistinguished yet competent singer with the altogether better and more powerful Ian Gillan, plus Roger After some unsuccessful singles and an orchestral project, they finally perfected their sound forever with this album, which revolutionised heavy rock forever, but also helped kick start a new type of progressive hard rock, which bands like Uriah Heep, Quatermass, Warhorse, Odin and scores of others would take note of.

The album literally begins with a bang, with the monolithic 'Speed King', which is a loud cacophony of squealing guitar riffs, organ wails and pounding drums. After this huge beginning, the piece calms down into a more cerebral piece, showcasing Jon Lord's classical derived organ work. However, the track soon kicks off into overdrive again, with a pulsating rock riff with punishing guitar and organ work, and a suitably histrionic vocal from Ian Gillan.

The drumming is extremely powerful here, as are the hugely ending, with huge wails from Gillan, with the whole band battering away like the world was going to end. Superb stuff. 'Bloodsucker' has a terrific riff, with nifty interplay between Lord and Blackmore, with a shrieking vocal from Ian Gillan and some tremelo-tastic solos by Ritchie Blackmore.

However, it was always destined to pale next to the next song. 'Child In Time' is probably the best Deep Purple song ever, and their most progressive by some measure. It begins with a brooding organ introduction, which is very meditative and help Gillan's reflective vocals questioning the futility of war.

The piece soon builds up as soon as the drums kick in, as Gillan's more relaxed vocal gives way to a massive, high voiced wail, with some monolithic organ, guitar and bass riffing. It soon changes gear into a military rhythm with terrific musicianship, before one of the greatest solos ever by Ritchie Blackmore who's on fire here, and some top notch interplay with Jon Lord, before it calms down to the theme of the beginning again, with Gillan and Lord's eerie subdued work, yet soon explodes into a neo classical tirade of guitar and organ solos, prior to the all guns blazing ending- wailing vocals and super 'Flight Of The Rat' is a breathless heavy rocker, with delirious organ and guitar solos and riffing, plus brilliantly furious bass and drumming, with a terrific echo swamped vocal by Ian Gillan. There's also a great showcase for Ian Paice's great drumming 'Into The Fire' starts with a mega heavy riff supplied by Blackmore and Lord, alongside brutal drumming, then Gillan's histrionic vocal kicks in, and with lots of sharp solos by Blackmore and Lord,this is another great song.

'Living Loving Wreck' is a brutal song with crushing organ and guitar work, plus a brutal bashing on drums by Ian Paice, making for yet another heavy meisterwerk. 'Hard Lovin' Man' is an organ based riff rocker, with lots of tremelo enhanced guitar work amongst Jon Lord's super heavy solos and rumbling bass and drums work, plus a typically bombastic and fantastic vocal by Ian Gillan. This track ends the album the only fused with a progressive sound, and if not for this album we would probably be Posted Saturday, September 17, 2005, 16:42 EST |
Well here we jump into history.

Maybe not prog history but certainly in ROCK history. What a superb album this is regardless of it being prog or not! Groundbreaking would be the best adjective I can think of about the time this album was released!

Gone were Evans and Glover, Blackmore taking over the musical direction along with Screaming Ian Gillan. For years , North American youths were stolen the first minutes or so of this masterpiece. chaotic minute.

I can hardly forgive the record company for having pulled such a stunt and to think that American youth could not hear such a great start. Anyway Speed King second Purple line-up (known as Mk II) and was the first crack at superstardom for them. the intro of the previous track) but goes a little un-noticed as we reach Child In Time.

OK , this if track if they had not done it. Among all of the version I heard , this studio track is still the best, IMHO and the guitar solo the most audible. Thje tracks ends in another Flight being my fave among them.

The special 25th Anniversary version comes also with the superb non-album single Black Night, indispensible companion of the album. The rest of Posted Wednesday, September 21, 2005, 11:54 EST |
What can be said about this fantastic album? Well, first you have a four octave vocal assult, given by no other than the legendary Ian Gillan, also known as Jesus Christ (Superstar, of course.

) His amazing banshee wails have been known to Disturb the Priest, every now and then. I can't emphasize how great Ian Gillan is, you have to hear this album to truly understand. Combine Ian Gillan's mastery at hard rock vocals with Ritchie Blackmore, and you have a winning team.

Ritchie Blackmore is a truly great guitar player. He gives us fantastic riff after riff, and his solos are even more amazing. He is deeply rooted in classical music, and it gives a fresh perspective compared to the blues style many bands played at the time.

(and hey, I love Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, but variety is good). Add Tony Iommi into the mix with these four greats, and you have my five favourite guitarists outside of prog. We cannot forget Jon Lord, the organ player.

"Organ player!?" some might exclaim.

But believe me, he is fantastic. He really knows what he is doing. Without him, Ritchie's guitar riffs wouldn't sound half the same.

What a lot of people don't realize is that when Jon Lord is riffing with his Hammond Organ, it sounds similar to a guitar. This in turn creates a huge massive sound, which would become a trademark of the band (well, sometimes Jon played piano and stuff, but that wasn't particularly often). I could compare Jon Lord to some other organ players, maybe Keith Emerson or Rick Wakeman, but his style is far different from these geniuses.

He himself is also one! We cannot forget the rhythm section, however. They are very impressive themselves.

first (Gillan was called Big Ian, and Paice wasn't really small or anything, but Gillan was pretty big). Ian Paice, in short, just has the groove. His drum beats are great.

He can play speedy beats with ease, bashing his drum set, but at the same time keeping his "groove." He plays amazingly throughout the album, and is often underrated when people talk about drummers. Granted, I prefer John Bonham (Led Zeppelin) over him, Then again there is Keith Moon, who is fantastic, but I would still put Ian Paice on the same level as him.

I just mentioned these drummers because they were all in Hard Rock Now on to Roger Glover, who is very important in the history of Deep Purple, despite join Purple. Roger Glover is a great bassist, and was the co-writer of the lyrics along with Ian Gillan. You can hear his thundering bass amidst all the guitar and organ action from Ritchie and Jon.

Admittedly, his bass was not as loud as Geezer Butler, but it is still loud and great. He works great alongside of Ian Paice, which is very important for the rhythm section. Someone has to keep the rhythm while Jon and Ritchie are trading off solos!

(which happens frequently) We cannot forget the fact that he does the remixing albums. Before I go on, I should also mention that I will be reviewing the 25th Anniversary Edition of "In Rock". The normal version is great too, but the extra songs you get are a superb addition, and the intro to Speed King isn't cut off.

. Plus, the 25th version is remastered, which is very noticeable. I have both versions, and the sound quality is vastly improved on the remastered version.

"Into the Fire" is barely listenable on the non remastered version! The remastered version is an import though, but it is only about five dollars more if you order it. In Germany you can get it in any well- Anyway, on to the songs themselves, which is what the album is about.

I will review each song in detail and give this time stand out performances as an addition, which will "Just a few roots, replanted." Overview - That intro is astounding. What a strange way to start a song, but it all works.

Ritchie really shows his skill here. Anyway, the song contains a pretty heavy riff for the time, and is relatively fast. It would be strange to have a slow song called Speed King, wouldn't it?

There is a neat little instrumental in the middle, but Ian Gillan comes back with a furious scream-laugh, and proceeds to finish the song along with the rest of the band. It is a great song, with a great chorus. However, the normal American version of this song has that great intro cut off, which turns this almost-six- minute song into a mind-numb 4 minute rocker.

Without that great intro, the song loses a lot of its power and unique-ness. I rate the full version, which is definitely a classic in general and deserves the full score! "A particularly nasty sort of fellow, there are lots of us.

" Overview - "Aaah, No, No, No!!" From the first few seconds, you can tell this is gonna be a great hard rock song.

Ian Gillan's performance in this song is outstanding! He dominates the song, easily. He gets three vocal parts right in a row, and shines in all of them.

Then we hear some classic Organ-Guitar solo trade offs, which are great. The last part of the song is perhaps the most interesting. Olympic Sharpshooter explained the effect already, so I will not go more into it, except to say that it is great.

All throughout the song, Roger Glover plays a crunching bassline, and Ian Paice's performance is great. The song includes some brilliant guitar breaks, which have an prog-atmosphere, at least you could imagine it, but it's quite obvious. However, despite the great instrumental prowess in this song, Ian Gillan clearly outshines the others with "The story of a loser - it could be you.

" Overview - The most fantastic song on the album, and is truly awesome. After the first time I heard this amazing epic, I was in awe. If Deep Purple could only be remembered by one song, this would be it.

Forget your Smoke on the Waters and Woman from Tokyos, this song absolutely destroys those songs, and to be quite honest, the rest of the Deep Purple catalog. This song is emotional, calm, wild, intrigueing, amazing, and The song is essentially about victims of war, and is lyrically very short. It begins with a calm and beautiful organ intro, which is borrowed from It's A Beautiful Day's Bombay Calling.

Roger and Ian Paice give us a great rhythm, which fits the song perfectly. Then there is Ian Gillan who starts singing. He does an excellent, no.

..more than excellent, job singing.

He sings the verses passionately and powerfully. Then we enter the trademark "Aaaaaah"s, which you really have to hear to understand them. They start out soft, and progressively get louder and more aggressive.

Aggressive really isn't the word to use, but I cannot find a better way to describe this amazing work of vocal art. After Ian Gillan finishes his amazing stunt, it is time for Ritchie to enter the scene. Oh, and enter he shall.

He gives us a guitar solo like no other. It starts off slow, and then gets more fast paced as time goes on. It is played and written amazingly.

Ritchie has done many amazing solos, but in my opinion, he has never topped this one. Maybe it is just because of the song the solo is in, but either way, the solo is amazing. The rhythm section is great as always throughout the guitar assault.

Jon comes in near the end of Ritchie's solo and gives a great solo. It gets faster and faster, until suddenly it stops, and we get that calm organ again, except now Jon is playing an amazing clam organ solo. Ian Gillan sings passionately again, and enters his "Aaaaah"s again.

It starts out calmly like the first time, but when he changes this time, it is much more drastic. As he goes on, he gives an even better performance than before, and leaves you wondering how he can possibly do it. The song ends with chaos, featuring Ian Gillan screaming over the top of speedy instruments, but I would have the song end no other way.

The song is over ten minutes, but every second is amazing. This is the best song on the album, the best song Deep Purple ever did, and in my book, the best song ever "Just to remind you there are other ways of turning on." Overview - After the full out assault of awesomeness that is Child In Time, Deep Purple had to give us something damn good afterwards, and they do not let us down.

After I gave this song a few listens, it instantly became one of my favorites. The song just rocks, there is no other way of putting it. Ian Gillan gives a good performance, but refrains from screaming.

Roger Glover gives us some great bass, and Jon Lord throws those solos at us like no other. The real stars of this song are Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Paice, though. Ritchie's guitar riff for this song is excellent, and his solos are miles beyond his riff.

The man can really play guitar, and does not get the respect he deserves. Ian Paice gives us a great performance himself. His drums are rockin' throughout the song, and his drum solo at the end of the song is great.

The song is really all over the place after the first three or so minutes, but that is what makes this song so great. "Out of the frying pan..

." Overview - This song is pretty heavy for its time, and is pretty aggressive. However, the song isn't amazing like the others, but just a very good song.

Ian Gillan gives us some furious vocals, which are probably the highlight of the song. Other than that, the song really doesn't stick out too much, other than being heavy. Jon and Ritchie do not dissapoint with their solos and riffing, and Roger and Ian Paice are great as always.

"It takes all sorts - support your local groupie." Overview - Another great song. It is definitely a step up from Into the Fire.

The song isn't really super heavy or in your face, it is just a great song. Jon Lord plays great during the song, his "swoosh" organ sound giving the song a lot of character. Ian Gillan also doesn't scream during the song, which is the only other time other than Flight of the Rat where he doesn't.

It does not make the song any less great; in fact, his vocals are great on this one. The lyrics are a bit strange, though. You know that "groove" thing I was saying Ian Paice had?

He displays it in full glory in this song. Great performance by the Little Ian. Roger gives us some great bass on this song, another of the song's highlights.

Ritchie plays well, but he has better moments on the album. Overview - Wow, another amazing song. This album really cranks them out.

Listen to the guitar riff, it is great. The intro is also killer, as well. The whole band really shines on this track, they play very well.

Jon's solos at first were a bit strange to me, but after a few listens I started enjoying them a lot. Ian Gillan gives us a wild performance. He certainly makes sure we know what kind of man he is!

Ritchie solos like a madman on this one, and along with Gillan is the highlight of this song. However, every band member gives a great performance on this one, as I have said before, but I cannot understate their achievements. This ends the original album with a bang, but if you take my advice and get the remastered import, you will have other goodies waiting for So, on the remastered import we have some more tracks.

There are two Black Nights, one is the original single version, and the other is the "Unedited Roger Glover Remix". The single version stops midway through Ritchie Blackmore's final guitar solo, and we miss out on some great stuff. But the full version is there for us.

It sounds a lot better as well. We also have remixes of Speed King and Flight of the Rat, which are pretty useless if you ask me. There is a piano version of Speed King, which is a pretty good listen.

There is a great instrumental called Jam Stew, and a great unreleased (at least during the Mark II days) song called Cry Free. There are also various "Studio Chats" which are pretty useless again, but some are interesting. I won't review these tracks, but I will tell you that Cry Free is great and is worthy to listen through.

The Unedited Black Night is also a fantastic song, and is worthy to play over and over again. So, there you have it. If you took the time to read this review, you either already have this amazing work of art or highly interested in the album, and therefore should go If this weren't a review done from the viewpoint of a progressive rock music, I would give this album five stars, as "Into The Fire" is the only average song on this record.

But I think this LP started the hard-rock phase of this band, and there are only few proggy moments left. Most notably, "Child in Time", which is truly a beautiful and classic song.