Album Reviews

Rapture of the Deep by Deep Purple is the band’s 18th studio album, released in 2005 and widely regarded as one of the finest records of the Steve Morse era. Full track-by-track review, chart history, and details on the 2025 anniversary reissue.

Slaves and Masters by Deep Purple is the only studio album featuring Joe Lynn Turner on vocals. Released in October 1990, it is one of the most debated and misunderstood records in the band’s catalog. This is the full story.

The House of Blue Light by Deep Purple arrived in January 1987 as the second reunion album from the classic Mark II lineup. Recorded under difficult conditions in Vermont, it is a conflicted record with real strengths on its second side.

Deep Purple’s 1984 comeback album Perfect Strangers reunited the classic Mark II lineup after eleven years apart. This is the complete track-by-track review, production breakdown, chart history, and legacy of the record that proved the band still had everything.

A full Come Taste the Band by Deep Purple album review: the 1975 Mark IV album with Tommy Bolin replacing Ritchie Blackmore. #19 UK, #43 US. Track-by-track.

A full Stormbringer by Deep Purple album review: the 1974 Mark III closer recorded in Munich that drove Ritchie Blackmore out the door. #6 UK, #20 US. Track-by-track.

A full Burn by Deep Purple album review: how the 1974 Mark III debut with Coverdale and Hughes silenced the doubters and hit #3 in the UK.

The Who Do We Think We Are by Deep Purple album review covers the 1973 album that ended the classic Mark II era: recorded in Rome and Frankfurt by a fractured band running on empty, it still produced Woman from Tokyo, sold half a million copies in three months in the US, and made Deep Purple the best-selling artist in America in 1973.

The Machine Head by Deep Purple album review covers the six-million-selling 1972 album recorded in hotel corridors after the Montreux Casino fire, containing Highway Star, Smoke on the Water, Lazy, and Space Truckin. Seven tracks. No filler. No compromise.

The Fireball by Deep Purple album review covers the 1971 record that hit number 1 in the UK and has spent fifty years underestimated. More experimental than In Rock, more diverse than Machine Head, and the favorite Mark II album of Ian Gillan himself.

The Deep Purple in Rock album review covers the 1970 landmark that launched the Mark II era: seven tracks recorded across London studios between extensive touring, producing Child in Time, Speed King, and one of the most important hard rock records ever made.

The Shades of Deep Purple album review covers the debut that launched one of rock’s greatest careers: recorded in three days in May 1968, it gave the world Hush, Mandrake Root, and the first glimpse of the Lord-Blackmore axis that would define an era.