![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/morse9.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/airey.jpg)
With a cherry on top
Goldmine magazine puts the upcoming remix of Rapture of the Deep on their list of essential 2025 anniversary reissues.
When you think about classic era recording acts that, to this day, continue to fuel their fire, and are continually respected and supported by the music consumer public — Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, and others come immediately to mind. But just as much, Deep Purple continues to keep their flame lit in the modern day, and it’s shown most recently with their most current studio effort, =1. Since the turn of the century, Deep Purple has been pushing out new material (whether new or archival live recordings, or new studio albums), having released over two dozen collectively since we entered the new millennium. All of the band’s recordings, since 2000, have seemingly fared extremely well, and many are regarded and praised as ‘modern classics’ by a worldwide Deep Purple fandom — Rapture of the Deep is one of those albums. Originally released on October 24, 2005, on the EDEL label, the album resides as the 18th studio album by the classic rock icons. It is laced with lush, hard progressive rock goodness and may very well be the band’s most acclaimed 21st-century album. It has received over a dozen reissues since its original release, indicating the great commercial desire for this record. Several variants of releases have graced this album over its 20-year run, but none will quite match the upcoming 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of the original recording.
Not that most of our readership needs much further persuasion, but you can read more accolades in Goldmine.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I don’t think that ROTD will ever see ascension to my top ten of DP albums, but I‘m happy for all those who liked it, but were unhappy with the production, that is has now received this treatment. It deserved it.
„ … over a dozen reissues since its original release, indicating the great commercial desire for this record. Several variants of releases have graced this album over its 20-year run …“
Ok, I (or my android replica) must have been deep-frozen when this happened … 🤯
August 4th, 2025 at 01:32Rapture of the Deep” is far from being a bad album…but out of 21 albums (not counting the album with covers “Turning to Crime”), in my opinion it’s among the last four…in the company of “Slaves and Masters”, “The Battle Rages On” and “Abadon”. On my list of 100 top DP songs, only the song “Clearly Quite Absurd” from ROTD has crept in, possibly “Before Time Began”.
August 4th, 2025 at 12:28Slaves and Masters is a good album but Rainbow level, TBRO is perhaps the weakest but it has two classics that have become cultish over time, the title song and “Anya”…in the end, Rapture of the Deep and Abadon remain. What bothers me most about ROTD are the funky songs…that you could dance to in a dance club…Girls Like That, Don’t Let Go, Back to Back…they’re not bad songs but they’re not DP
From the album, I would single out the already mentioned “Clearly Quite Absurd”.one of the most beautiful ballads of the band in history. and the title track. I have the highest hopes in the new remix of the song “Before Time Began” Great harmony, great melody. As well as Steve’s song “Closing Note” which will be released for the first time
ROTD has stood the test of time just fine in my book. Prob the middle of the pack of all DP albums.
A bit funky sounding, with a few standouts, the title track, Clearly Quite Absurd, Money Talks and…wait for it…MTV (Mr. Glover, Mr. Gillian, oh, you must have made a million, the day Frank Zappa caught on fire), gets me every time.
August 4th, 2025 at 17:28What about “Abandon” and “Bananas”? These albums deserve some love too, especially in remix/remastered vinyl LP.
I have all their studio albums on vinyl, except these two.
Already pre-ordered the ROTD vinyl.
August 5th, 2025 at 01:33I’m not sure what should be wrong with Abandon on a production level, Bo Jhack? It has always been a Roger Glover-produced album (unlike Bananas and ROTD), I don’t think he has wildly changed his production values, so it just comes down to more modern technology.
Abandon is an album loved by some and disliked by others. I think it has to do with the generally dark nature of the record which for some people was a bit oppressive after the sprightly Purpendicular. I was initially a bit disappointed by it myself, but since then I have come to appreciate it more and more. It’s still a dark, brooding album, not that that is necessarily a bad thing.
Of course, if outtakes and alternative takes from the Abandon sessions exist, that would be interesting. For starters, it would be nice to have – after 27 years! -a stereo version of Don’t Make Me Happy which via a studio glitch they published on the CD accidentally only in a mono version (only the CD single version released later was stereo) and never corrected it because Roger vetoed any such attempts, not wanting to hear the accusation that DP wanted to trigger re-buying of the Abandon CD due to a release of a later version where all tracks are stereo. (I was never happy with that decision, let me decide what I want to buy or not, thank you.)
August 5th, 2025 at 18:54Production or not, Steve’s solo on the title track is one of the best rock solos I have heard, maybe the best one in Steve’s whole illustrious career.
August 6th, 2025 at 06:59@ 6 The solo in Seventh Heaven is THE one, so very good..
August 9th, 2025 at 13:14#4 Bo Jhack:
You’re right, they are the best albums of the Morse era for different reasons, but they are the best.
I never understood what fans found so special about Raptur of the Deep, it was the beginning of a saga of albums with 3-4 good songs and the rest being bland stuff with no riffs, no catchy choruses, no innovative solos, no imagination, no novelty, no anything that made you say wow…..too little for Purple standards..
Abandon is Jon Lord’s hard rock testament, it was his swan song, and fortunately the band was in a state of grace on the wave of the new life of the Purpencular tour and the arrival of Steve who was very inspired in those years.
Paice could still handle fast bpms, and BigIan had regained excellent vocal stamina after years of problems.
Bananas was the real eclectic album of the Morse era, unfortunately there were no riffs from Abandon, but there was an almost world music creativity, an evolution that started from Purpendicular and developed between Lord & Airey.
The house of Blue Light was more varied and creative (despite the tensions of the time) than anything Purple did after Bananas (the last album with Lord’s ideas on it).
after Bananas someone had to tell them that the ideas were too poor, that the albums had some masterpieces and too many fillers, but I think they realized it themselves when they released =1 without regretting Morse.
(sorry for the Uwe-style cynicism, Morse was fantastic and there is no blame for the path that Purple took with him, in some ways it was very refined, in other ways full of useless songs far from the worst takes of Slaves and Masters or The Battle Rages On
August 10th, 2025 at 01:02Wot? Me? A cynic?!!!!!! 😱
https://assets3.thrillist.com/v1/image/2546162/792×456/scale;webp=auto;jpeg_quality=60;progressive.jpg
I’m ironic, sardonic, sarcastic and caustic, but I generally try to stay away from cynicism.
With maybe the exception of Machine Head (and that is just my personal taste) plus, strangely )and also likely for only me), Come Taste the Band, all DP albums have had their share of fillers. I mean the band itself considered SOTW a filler. And one (wo)man’s filler is another (wo)man’s great track.
I generally consider an album with three to four outstanding songs a credible release. And if an album is well sequenced, then the great tracks elevate the mediocre ones, that is just how our brains work.
August 10th, 2025 at 14:04#9 Uwe:
I’m sorry for your point of view dear Uwe, but I think that from Rapture onwards, Purple have never had as many fillers as in the rest of their career, not even in MKI they had so many fillers.
and you know the reasons too: lack of real riffs, too slow a pace, too limp drums, too spoken lyrics, repetitive Morse solos, Airey solos that are academy-worthy.
compositional vein generally flattened into a pseudo prog with little hard rock.
If I have to think of a Purple musician from Rapture onwards who has played to consistent standards, for me it is only Roger.
I’m very harsh in saying that from Rapture onwards the albums could have been EPs.
August 10th, 2025 at 21:58Yes, Morse era Purple opened the floodgates for Prog influences which were not welcomed by all. But if we’re honest: Wasn’t the era where Mk II wrote catchy hard and heavy rock with commercial appeal, but not too dumb, already over by their dissolution in 1973? If Perfect Strangers had been released in 1974, I have doubts whether anybody would have rated is as good or better than In Rock, Fireball, MH or WDWTWA, by 70s standards it was a very tame affair, certainly no Burn as regards kicking the door down and hammering with your fists on your chest.
And so the seasons change. 80s DP couldn’t recapture 70s DP Sturm & Drang and Steve Morse couldn’t write riffs with the immediacy of Ritchie which most kids can easily play in a guitar store, yet still sound reliably identifiable Blackmore. Steve did other things and he did them well. Meanwhile, we’re on to yet another lead guitarist and Simon can’t write in the cerebral vein of Steve, but he adds more “street” to Purple, some people had been missing just that. Steve for all his talent and individuality was always a bit guitar clinic/NAMM show.
No, I don’t agree that nearly everything after ROTD was filler. I try to view each era under its own terms and I find something to like in all of them. But Machine Head will always be my favorite hard/heavy rock album – frankly even back then I never thought they would ever better that album, some things just happen once.
August 11th, 2025 at 02:49