108. Deep Purple / The Battle Rages On. 1992. 3.5/5

For a band with so much success over a long period of time, there is little doubt that the working relationships within the band Deep Purple had always been temperamental. Prior to the band’s cessation in the mid-1070's most of the Mark II line up had moved on, looking for other opportunities and also to be able to express themselves in their own way without being forced to conform to the majority rules of being a part of a group. On their reformation in 1983, there still seemed to be an unease, mainly between Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore, and it had eventually led to Gillan leaving the group after “The Hose of Blue Light” album, replaced by Ritchie and Roger Glover’s former Rainbow colleague Joe Lynn Turner on the “Slaves and Masters” album in 1990.
The unease was still there, and with the writing process for the next album already in full swing, Turner was let go from the band. The reason was not a dispute – in fact, Blackmore wanted Turner to stay – but with the band having signed a new muti million dollar record deal, the record company wanted Ian Gillan back at the helm, especially in the lead up to the 25th anniversary of the band’s inception. This created a lot of angst, as Ian Paice, Jon Lord and Roger Glover were in favour of the outcome, but Blackmore was adamant. How adamant, you may ask? Well, in order to go along with this occurring, Ritchie asked for, and received, $250,000 in his bank account before it went ahead. Even at that time it was a ludicrous amount of money for one band member to receive to change his mind. And given this was the case, you surely could only have assumed at the time that it was barely a band-aid on the growing sore of the band, and that it was not a cure but only a temporary solution to a problem that would continue to fester as time moved on.

The album kicks off with a typically strong opening track, the title track in fact, and as Ian Gillan’s layered vocals come straight to the fore you could easily imagine that everything has been restored despite the drama between albums, and the band have hit their straps again. The mix of Lord’s Hammond organ and Blackmore’s riffs settle nicely again within Glover’s soothing bass and Paice’s under appreciated drumming.
From this point on however, the rest of the album is a series of songs that are varied in style and quality, and varied in a way that is very un-Deep Purple like. And there could been several reasons for that, but none seem satisfactory. For instance, “Lick it Up” is a slowed-tempo song that seems to lack any great motivation through the base of the song, and is not rescued in any way by Blackmore or Lord by ways of a memorable solo. “Talk About Love” sticks to the same sort of style, probably with more energy than “Lick it Up”, but still without anything particularly interesting happening in the song. Then you have “Ramshackle Man” which is a straight out blues rock song, right down to the nuances of Gillan’s vocals. Now to me it seems like an extraordinarily strange move to throw this song into the middle of the album, for no other reason than it is so completely different from everything else around it. You be forgiven for thinking you’d accidently changed albums if you didn’t look at the tracklisting on the CD. Listen, if you are a massive blues fan you will probably still be surprised when this comes on. Five and a half minutes of completely off the wall misdirected music. I’ve listened to this album a bit over the last coupe of weeks, and I still can’t get my head around why this song is here. As a B-side to a single? OK, I could get that. But here? No, no, no.
On the other hand, “Anya” finds a much better place, and SOUNDS like a Deep Purple song with Lord’s Hammond organ making its presence felt and Blackmore playing off against it nicely. The song moves along freely and lifts the spirit rather than kill it with boredom. “Time to Kill” is enjoyable enough with a bouncy feel and singalong lyrics, but it also feels very stock-standard with a fill in the numbers kind of writing and playing. “A Twist in the Tale” fortunately comes on straight after the abomination of “Ramshackle Man”, and is played at a good clip, and again features the best parts of Blackmore and Lord making the song their own, along with Gillan’s higher soaring vocals to complement it. “Nasty Piece of Work” is a slower tempo’d track but is still mixed with a varied array of Gillan’s vocals and dominated by Lord’s organ and Paice’s beautifully timed drumming skills. “Solitaire” and “One Man’s Meat” are both songs that are fine without being memorable again, that close out the album.
In the long run, Ritchie Blackmore was openly critical with the less than melodic output the band had come to put together, and there is a mood change here again following the very Rainbow-esque “Slaves and Masters” album and this. And it is hard to put a finger on just where this comes from. Sure, the genre changing era of grunge and alt music had arrived and was creating different platforms for artists in regards to their music, and on some songs here it does sound like they are trying to diversify in that kind of direction. But even that seems too simplified a response as to the whole direction of this album. It just SOUNDS like there is a battle going on for the sound of the band, and of the band itself, and it hasn’t made for an exciting release.

I rushed right out and bought this in the first week of its release, which wasn’t a particularly popular move because at the time I was newly married and our disposable income was very close to zero. Still, it was Deep Purple. Their three albums since the 1984 reformation had been brilliant (at least, I thought so), and this was going to be just another notch on the belt. Well, that wasn’t quite the case. The music world had changed, and the individuals in the band don’t appear as though they were committed enough to fight against it.
I listened to it a bit at the time (making sure I got my money’s worth in a way), and look, it was an easy listen on days when that was what I was looking for. And there is no question that many of my favourite bands from the 1980’s had released less than sterling albums in those years around 1992 and 93. Now whether it was because they were running out of ideas, or because the times they were a’changing, or a combination of both, I don’t really know. What I do know is that this album, along with several others from those kid of bands at the time, had a few question marks over it if you wanted to dig deep enough and scratch beyond the surface of “oh yeah, another nice Deep Purple album!” I’ve listened to it plenty in the last few weeks, and when I’m at home in the Metal Cavern, playing it through my stereo with a scotch in hand, I have still enjoyed this just as I did 30 years ago in that one bedroom flat in Kiama.
Is it a memorable album? No, it isn’t. It does have some good songs, but unlike the previous three albums it all feels a bit forced. No doubt part of that comes from having to mould the songs written with the previous vocalist to Gillan’s unique style, but in the long run you just get the feeling that the camaraderie and band work ethic was not the same as it had been before. This was all obvious when halfway through the world tour to promote it, Blackmore quit the band for the second and final time. Joe Satriani was drafted in to complete those tour dates, and then Deep Purple moved to a new era with the recruitment of a new lead guitarist, one whose style and energy revitalised the group and allowed them to continue moving forward into the next century. The Mark II era ended with an album that none of them would have been satisfied with, but still contains enough good songs to make it worthwhile in the Deep Purple discography.