![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/glover5.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/mcbride4.jpg)
That’s the route she chose
Apparently a new single Diablo from the upcoming new album Splat! was released on June 5, 2026, without much fanfare. But probably because of the general enshittification of the web, it’s not available everywhere. So we’re posting two different copies in the hope that you can access at least one of them.
The second guitar you can hear on this track is by the guest artist Keith Urban. How on Earth did a country-pop artist end up guesting on a Deep Purple track, you ask? The connection appears to be that (apart from being an accomplished musician) Keith is now the proud owner of the Tracking Room Studio in Nashville, a favourite of Bob Ezrin.
[Same day update]: the fanfares started blaring, and promo blurb has arrived:
DIABLO
THE NEW SINGLE
DEEP PURPLE have released their new single DIABLO today. The new track is the latest taste of SPLAT!, DEEP PURPLE’s new studio album, out July 3rd.
DIABLO opens the door to one of DEEP PURPLE’s surreal new story worlds: the most dangerous place on earth, where a heroine crosses a river, jumps into a fighting pit, celebrates with a bucket of wine, falls into the glitter pool and somehow makes it back home with a tale to tell.
Join the video premiere for DIABLO on Sunday, June 7th, at 02 PM EDT/11 AM PDT/ 07 PM BST/ 08PM CEST.
Thanks to Fla76 and AndreA for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
My Grandma always told me if you haven’t got anything good to say about something then keep your mouth shut so I am saying nothing, nothing at all.
June 5th, 2026 at 15:27BTW the beat is Apres vous in reverse.
Peace ✌️
I love this tune!
Deep Purple, alive and kicking 🤩💜🙏🏼
June 5th, 2026 at 15:29I like it. Another riffy piece from this era of Purple. Don’t get me wrong, Don was the perfect replacement for our beloved Jon, but I often feel that he plays too many notes during his solos, as if he’s attempting to cram in as much as possible. Jon could indeed be flashy but I always felt he very much played for the song rather than going for the keyboard histrionics. I’ll no doubt get slaughtered for criticising Don (although it really is only an observation), which wasn’t my intention as he seems a lovely chap.
In addition, I wish they’d (including Bob Ezrin) allow Paicey to play without a click track. Ian has always hated them and it definitely limits his creativity behind the kit as he’s concentrating on that damn click instead of doing what he does best. His timing has always been exceptional so I don’t think a click is necessary. There is always a sense of push and pull within a band, especially live. Just give the man the freedom to express himself more.
June 5th, 2026 at 15:38First listen it reminds me of Apres Vous.
June 5th, 2026 at 15:42Oh yes! It’s only simple Good Hard Rock, which is what I’ve always wanted!! And not those brainless musical constructions of the recent mixed prog past!!
June 5th, 2026 at 15:47💜
Oh my, this won’t become an international hit, but everything else feels comfy like an old pair of beloved shoes! A real Purple romp – with no chorus either (why follow silly fashion trends now? 😂) and a middle eight nodding at the chorus of Super Trouper (@00:25),
https://youtu.be/OUnq351vNQU
just lovely. The duel between Don and the Irish kid is great and lively too. Finally, I like how it ends so abruptly, some real swagger there, wham bam thank you M’am!
Sehr schön. I dig Simon’s tone, very natural.
A concise statement that DP are alive and well, ready to raise some hell. (Ok, admittedly I’ve had better rhymes. 🙄)
June 5th, 2026 at 15:49@ 3
June 5th, 2026 at 15:52I agree. Jon Lord had more feeling. Not that I don’t like Don, but his solos like this, up and down, never really drove me crazy.
Everything you wrote about Don is true, RB, not a knock at all. That is just an apt description of how he plays. He enjoys being a little technical. I’ve just accepted that as being a part of the style of Purple since he joined.
June 5th, 2026 at 15:54On this song, DEEP PURPLE are joined by a special guest on second guitar, global superstar, Grammy-winning guitarist, singer and songwriter Keith Urban (get it, people? But I don’t know who he is..🤣)
June 5th, 2026 at 15:58But it’s also fair to say that in latter day Mk VII, Maestro Lord had become a little sleepy behind his ivories. He was a bit “been there, done that”. So Don peeing on the rug is a sign of youthful enthusiasm – of a soon 78-year-old that is … 😂
June 5th, 2026 at 16:00The instruments sounds like Apres Vous, which was my most favorite song from Now What along with Above and Beyond. Apres Vous was longer and overall better (this fantastic song replaced Highway Star as opener in many Now What concerts), but Diablo is rockin’ and satisfying too
I dig the powerful verse including its vocal melodies, which to me was more enjoyable than that forgettable Arrogant Boy. However same can’t be said about the bridge (or middle-eight?? sorry for my lack of musical knowledge) which was like a let down after such driven and powerful verses.
As for the time duration, we have complained that when song listing came out. I hope this song will turn into a jam-party on stage, sounds as fun as Lazy Sod albeit much shorter
And yes, Airey’s notes-frenzy solo seemed like he forgot it’s not Mark 8 anymore with a lot of progressive influences in their songs. Most of Mk 9 songs are shorter, simpler, and more straight-forward. Quoting Steve Morse, tumeni notes .
June 5th, 2026 at 16:26I Like this better than “Arrogant Boy” but hey this just me
June 5th, 2026 at 17:04Après Vous similarities.
June 5th, 2026 at 17:15What a great track, another one after Arrogant Boy !
Very good singing from Ian here and beautiful guitars/hammond solos… I’m impressed.
June 5th, 2026 at 17:55I, for one, this time around am severely unimpressed. Aside from some good singing and guitar playing, this is DP totally by numbers, there’s nothing really out of the overplayed schemes that we didn’t have so far. I agree with tediousness of Don’s playing, up and down with no memorable feel or phrasing. Plus the affair starts and seems to end just before you note that there was any middle and bang to it. I’ll say it again, we’re not in the Ramones territory. “Arrogant Boy” was rich in it’s 200 seconds, this 200 is rather bleakly pedestrian. So! A month left until we have it all.
June 5th, 2026 at 18:38Sadly I suspect that this will be the first ever Deep Purple studio album I will not buy.
June 5th, 2026 at 19:42So and so track, mainly because of the ABC-of rock riff, surely these guys with all their experience could up with something more exciting. Wonderful part after the second verse, would’ve liked that once more. Same goes for Arrogant Boy, that Oh Billy – part is the money in that song and should’ve been repeated. Just my two cents..
June 5th, 2026 at 20:41TEMAZO con una letra gillanesca…no esperemos de cada tema un Highway Star eso ya lo hicieron….disfrutemos ésto
June 5th, 2026 at 20:56I have to say I’m surprised by this song as a second single.
=1 had 3 singles that set the record straight, here we have a great song that misses the mark like arrogant boy.
It’s a nice song, but it reminds me a lot of “I Got Your Number” and also some of the drums from “Ted the Mechanic” and “Any Fule Kno That”
At the same time, I’m a little disappointed that it’s similar to these songs. I would have preferred a little more imagination, but on the other hand, I’m happy that it recalls some good songs!…. because it’s a good song that goes very well!
Don’s sound reminds me of something from Jon’s Abandon period, while Simon here almost seems like a tribute to Steve and all this seems good to me.
I would have liked a different harmony on the chorus, maybe something banally more “minor harmonic” and less “open”, and I hope the next single is more similar to the splendid Pictures of You
June 5th, 2026 at 23:18God help us, the tabloid journos are trying to portray Saint Ian as Sage Ian. Taking a risk? I wish DP would and get another producer etc. Anyway, here we go again. The track does sound a little, well been there done that. Not to worry, at least my coffee stayed down this morning. I listened yesterday after AndreA sent that link, thanks AndreA. Will I listen again??????????? Where are the drums? Hang on, I am repeating myself again. Someone is also attempting to highlight Ian’s lyrics as mesmerising, or god forbid, surreal!. They actually remind me of well told stories from yesteryear and even a little bit of Lara Croft from Tomb Raider.
Am I being too ANALytical, yes indeed. Cheers.
https://www.loudersound.com/music/tracks-singles/deep-purple-diablo-single
June 5th, 2026 at 23:20My thoughts:
June 6th, 2026 at 00:281. Typically good vocals by Ian Gillan
2.Good interplay between organ and lead guitar
3. Roger’s bass line is sweet
4. The songs are too short. Airey’s solo was too brief. If you’re not concerned that much nowadays with being radio-friendly (having to keep songs under 4 minutes), jam out a little more at the end; Purple was always an instrumental band back in the day and it just feels like ‘Diablo’ could’ve used some more instrumentation at the end, like it finished about :40 seconds early. I felt the same about “A Simple Song”: Airey was rocking out and the song suddenly ended. Don’t be afraid to let McBride and Airey take down the house.
(minor correction to article: text says May 5, it was actually June 5)
It’s fun. Very short again, but sufficient.
June 6th, 2026 at 00:56I assume that the guitar solo at 02:01 is Keith’s, right? Bit more beefy than Simon who much like Ritchie prefers a leaner sound.
The country boy from MacGregor’s neck of the eucalyptus woods is no slouch on lead guitar.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PlYeQCKsSpw
Not the first time that members of the DP Family and New Country stars have met …
https://youtu.be/T2grLXJqE6U
While he doubles the lead vocal with his harmony second voice throughout, you should by 03:18 at the latest hear how the culprit reveals himself!
June 6th, 2026 at 01:07The second single chosen… I expected something more (I’m not saying the song is bad… but when it comes to DP songs, I always expect some x-factor that will knock me out of my shoes (there’s none here). I imagine… that the choice of the final song ( second song) was decided by the guest appearance of a distinguished guest on guitar. And that in the sequel… better moments await us.
June 6th, 2026 at 06:27Classic Purple riffs and sound, if it ain’t broke, I guess don’t fix it.
Sounds well produced, energetic and fun!
Cons? It’s predictable, and not very creative as far as the songwriting department goes – Arrogant Boy is stronger in terms of creativity, and yet, still predictable. If there’s one thing I miss about Steve being in the band, it was his penchant for taking a hard left turn from the usual Purple sound in the songwriting – it breathed fresh life into the band, and I feel it’s badly needed here.
Also, I agree it’s way too short – Bob is not letting them breathe and stretch out like they used to it. It is very focused, and well crafted, and, the jammier elements that I feel are essential to the Purple sound are sorely missing, and have been slowly erased since Bob influenced the band’s sound and direction. Now, they are practically gone, and I view that as most disappointing indeed. A leaner, cleaner Purple is not necessarily a better one!
I do however love the three way duel between Don, Simon and Keith Urban – also, is this the first time in Purple history that Purple has brought on an explicit guest artist to a track??
Someone please confirm or deny!
As for some of the comments on here:
The groove Paicey plays is nothing like Apres Vous – Apres Vous is in half time, with a funkier feel with Paicey doing sixteenth notes on the high hat. This is more straight ahead rock.
I don’t mind Don’s rambunctious business at all, but for goodness’ sake, can we put some bloody distortion and grit and dirt on that Hammond please??? I love Don’s playing, but his sound is far too clean and pristine for my tastes.
Overall, everything is TOO CLEAN – where is the DIRT, the RECKLESSNESS, THE DANGER and JOYFUL UNCERTAINTY that is DEEP PURPLE???
I accept that bands change – but can you really call a safe, clean, predictable sound Deep Purple?
Any band nowadays can have a guitar and a Hammond – it’s how the band expressed it for much of their career that made them who they are – I really feel they’ve strayed too far from what made them, well, them!
Safe, predictable and clean is not the Purple I love – the boys can do better!
I am very much enjoying the tunes *and* I feel they’ve lost their soul with Bob and Simon.
Steve, while his sound may have been very American, at least stayed true to the spirit and soul of the band by continuing to improvise and try fresh, new things – there was still that sense that you didn’t know where the music was going to go, just like in the 70s with Ritchie and Jon, and I loved that about the Morse years.
This Mark 9 has energy and drive, and it is also safe, predictable, clean sounding and boring. While they may have got their energy back, I feel they traded the soul of the band away for an altogether safe sound and approach to songwriting.
I hope the rest of the album proves me wrong, but so far, I am disappointed.
June 6th, 2026 at 09:08in the meantime..
https://youtu.be/5XQ7YQ4mVpY?is=MZYqwUzPLt32H77M
isn’t it a little early?!
June 6th, 2026 at 09:20#24 Ivica:
You’re probably right about choosing the second song because of the guest on guitar!
#23 Uwe:
so those Steve reminiscences that my ears hear are Keith Urban’s guitar?
June 6th, 2026 at 10:19Just OK. Nothing to get excited about.
June 6th, 2026 at 10:29It’s a late term DP rocker. My first take is great instrumental back and forth and in a bit, we’ll see how it fits into the larger album landscape.
To me, its a good song, not great, not yet anyway, but I’m still excited that we continue to get this late career output from this band. They are still making exciting music and pushing forward.
June 6th, 2026 at 12:19Arrogant Boy I like a lot. But this one has such a mediocre riff, that I cannot understand what were the guys thinking in the studio while writing the piece. The riff lacks all the brilliance that DP usually have. The song would have been much better without a riff (…well, that riff). If this is what they meant by describing the album being heavier than the previous ones, I don’t think it is a good thing. If heaviness comes in the form of mediocre riffing and at the expense of musicality and quality, they’re sh*tting their pants.
However, I am not bashing the band altogether, and I’m as enthusiastic in my waiting for the new album as I ever was (very enthusiastic that is).
June 6th, 2026 at 13:15Is this Deep Purple or the Don Airey Band? DP in the 2020s sound more and more like Don’s own band. But I mean that as a compliment not a bad criticism!
June 6th, 2026 at 14:23Sorry to say but for me this is just another boring shuffle …
June 6th, 2026 at 14:44This song does nothing for me, could be on any of the records since Ritchie left …
Guys, DP have no influence whatsoever on what gets chosen as a single, read Martin Popoff’s bio in which IG, RG and IP all at various points confirm that they have delegated that choice 100% to earMUSIC/Edel, their argument being: “We all thought SOTW should not be a single so what do we know?!” DP accept whatever choice the record company makes. So blame earMUSIC if you have to blame someone.
And let’s face it, DP left the singles market a long time ago (since KAYBD and Perfect Strangers at least – of if you want to go farther back since Woman From Tokyo), at this point single releases of theirs are mere tasters/sneak previews for new albums, they will never again be in the charts.
Andre S: “Bridge” and “middle eight” are often used interchangeably, but if you want to be really anal about it then a bridge is a musical motif connecting the verse with the chorus which is repeated throughout the song while a middle eight only appears once and is standalone, often played before instrumental parts with no connection to a chorus necessary. To add to the confusion, while in traditional songwriting the middle eight consisted of eight bars (hence the name), it can today be longer or shorter than that.
AndreA, if Keith Urban means nothing to you then I hazard the guess that (i) you don’t follow New Country as a genre, (ii) never read the tabloids so you are unaware who Nicole Kidman’s (= an actress) husband for the last two decades until earlier this year and father of their two daughters has been! 🤣
https://people.com/thmb/o2HJlNwXzizmIlwx5zr4_J4C9dc=/1500×0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749×0:751×2)/nicole-kidman-69844db2b372473197c09ea298589daf.jpg
My
journeytrail in Country led me from the Country croonings of Glenn Frey of the Eagles to Garth Brookshttps://youtu.be/Ra3kCmRcg9c (Lovely storytelling, like a movie, gives me goosebumps to this day!)
to eventually New Country
https://youtu.be/F89tKUJPWvc
so I’m reasonably aware of some artists though I’m not really an absolute genre fan. But Keith Urban is to New Country sort of what Bryan Adams is to the more rocky side of Pop/AOR.
https://youtu.be/eiBinM-f-Pk
Or think Rick Springfield (another Aussie) with a Country twang.
I actually welcome it that DP have someone like him guesting on their album. And that someone like Urban would do so, hey it’s all music!
June 6th, 2026 at 14:45MacGregor @ 20 & James G @21, I agree with both your assessments. I have been a life-long fan of Deep Purple since 1973. I have always loved the dangerous / take chances / extended soloing aspect of the Purps, in addition to their songcraft (including Gillan’s erudite/ witty lyrics) and general virtuosity. This latest song however doesn’t hit any of those marks for me….it is a safe, by the numbers, rehashed, have heard some of this before, type of song. It is not bad, it is not unpleasant. But it just doesn’t really go the places I want it to go. McBride and Airey give us only a taste of their prowess on this song. Little Ian sounds constrained. I dare say that this is what has happened on several albums since the stellar Now What?!….the band since that time has become totally EZRINIZED…..waaaay too much so. He seems to be boxing them in – way too concisely. I wish Ezrin would just let the tapes run and stop being such a control freak over the Purple beast.
June 6th, 2026 at 17:22@9
Keith is one of Nicole Kidman’s exes along with Tom Cruz. Does that ring the bell?
June 6th, 2026 at 18:20@22: good catch, thanks!
June 6th, 2026 at 20:00If memory serves me right Bob Ezrin told the band at the very beginning of their joint venture after he had seen them in concert that he would produce them if they agreed to make the album sound more like their live shows… I seem to remember he even mentioned that there was no way they’d crack the pop charts with a single anyway so they might as well do what they do best… improvise, play powerful and with abandon, jam … (Errr…like in: no song longer than 4 minutes?)
June 6th, 2026 at 21:26Funny isn’t it?
Sure, Uwe, I don’t follow new country (not even the old one, I listen to a lot of blues but not the clean-shirt kind) and I didn’t know he was N. Kidman’s husband (already an ex from what I understand) Of course I know her 🤣
June 6th, 2026 at 21:27Ciaoo 🍷
I am being totally honest here. I thought Keith Urban was an American. I do NOT follow everything in the entertainment world, in fact I avoid a lot of it. The only reason I have ever heard of him is through music tabloids and because of his now ex missus, who I do NOT follow at all either. I have only watched one for two movies with her in them a few decades ago. I tend to dwell in the European and British side of things. So there we have it. Uwe will probably be beside himself with that revelation. Urban (I had to google him) was born in New Zealand. So is he an Aussie? An American more so these days. But looking on his birth certificate will state New Zealand then over to here and then over to the States. There have been a few artists over time that land here from over that side of our nearest pond, New Zealand. Cheers.
June 6th, 2026 at 22:36I always loved the improvisational aspect in Purple’s music and how it led to songs being extended, yet, strangely, I don’t mind the new abridged and concentrated DP – and I agree that this is mostly Bob Ezrin’s do – at all. Must be my age, time is running out for me. 😎 I actually love that the new song has a three nice verses, a great middle eight and some inspired guitar and organ dueling all in little more than three minutes and then comes to an abrupt, almost humorous halt.
As for the sound Bob has created for Purple, I really like it, it sounds warm and organic to me. In recent days I undertook the exercise of listening to all Ezrin-produced DP albums in a row, they are soundwise birds of a feather. When I listen to the Michael Bradford or the Roger Glover productions in comparison, I always find something to niggle about. Ezrin has created a sonic canvas for Purple where I an entirely satisfied, his productions sound einschmeichelnd to my ears. Another age thing I guess, but then I have yet to hear a Bob Ezrin production whose sound I did not like, I’ve been a fan of his since the mid 70s.
And Don Airey has been the lead instrumentalist of DP for several albums now, I don’t mind that, it’s one of modern DP’s unique selling points. Everybody and his brother has a band with a dominant guitarist – yawn!
June 6th, 2026 at 22:42Fla76, I hear two guitarists playing and one of them sounds Stonesy – my guess is that Keith (Urban, not Richards!) is responsible for that, the Stones have always had a bit of twang in them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmCjpY4hqKE
https://youtu.be/VyK1bZZ7E-s
What a brilliant number Faraway Eyes is.
If some people are reminded of Steve (Morse) during Urban’s solo, then I guess it is that “Southern by the Grace of God”-thing they share, though one is an Australian and the other guy a Midwesterner.
June 7th, 2026 at 00:03Wow Kieth Urban ? Not a crazy fan but did go se him back in October ( my wife loves him )
June 7th, 2026 at 02:01An amazing guitarist (puts on an awesome show) – check out him & Brad Paisley somewhere in the past jamming together – amazing!
Really like this song but disappointed it didn’t last / was expecting a longer jam but it ended much too soon!
Love the groove. However, somebody should probably tell Ian it’s dee-ahh- blo, not dee-aye-blo…..😂
June 7th, 2026 at 03:47I hate the fact that the band is structured and the albums are becoming shorter under the “ dictatorship “ of Ezrin. Too predictable. It’s Gillan/ Paice style of music and should be Purple
June 7th, 2026 at 04:08Loookinf at the songs and how short they are I’m not really too enthusiastic. Go nuts guys! Don Airey solos too technical almost repetitive.
I am really afraid the the policy that no one comes with pre written songs 3nds up with all songs beeing somewhat a variant of Ted The Mechanic and similar songs. So the great ideas that the guys actually have before entering sthe studio will end up on solo albums. I suppose Simon did not know that the last time – and they ended up with =1 beeing a great album… I do hope I am wrong.
June 7th, 2026 at 06:47This song has so much potential yet let down by a far to short and uninspiring solo section.
June 7th, 2026 at 07:16I don’t know what type of music you guys hear in your regions if you switch on a radio not knowing what station it is dialed on. But if the music you then hear has more guitar and keyboard solos than what we hear from current Purple, then please send me your address so I can move there. 🤣
Brother MacGregor, I will of course not raise a verbal hand at you for not knowing where Mr Urban grew up. Your ignorance is severe punishment enough as is.
https://youtu.be/g1FXaTuUGqo
https://youtu.be/FnVZYiz33po
As I have written elsewhere, appalling how people don’t know their own history! 🤣😝
June 7th, 2026 at 15:00Nice groove, but someone should let Ian know it’s Dee-Ahh-Blo, not Dee-Ay-Blo.:)
June 7th, 2026 at 15:02Knowing Big Ian, he might mispronounce it on purpose, Aaron, sort of like Mark Twain had Tom Sawyer always speak about Ay-rabs and not Arabs. A Hicksville approach to pronouncing foreign words. Something tells me that a man like Ian who has chosen the Iberian peninsula as his spiritual and factual home would be aware of how diablo is pronounced. In Portuguese the pronunciation of the term in similar spelling (diabo) is “gee-abo”.
But then trust the Yanks to say “Murr-say-deez” and “Porrshee” for German automobile Ingenieurskunst rather than körrekt “Merr-tsay-duhs” or “Por-shuh”.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mPh6HFJi6bo
June 7th, 2026 at 17:52The diabolicus videoclip
https://youtu.be/Z4RpBEg5uis?is=3wcZfreqNzuXVdNx
June 7th, 2026 at 18:46This is the alternative mix of Apres vous recycled cus they’re running out of ideas since Steve left !
I do like it but I just don’t think of it as Deep Purple anymore, it’s sooo diluted !
P.S
June 7th, 2026 at 19:14Why is Gillan looking like one of the ghosts from John Carpenters ” The Fog ” ? Lol
We learn from the new vid of Diablo a couple of noteworthy things:
– Due to technical requirements and constraints, the new single will only play at 666 rpm. I you are unsure if your equipment can support this, please check with your local Satanic Circle first.
– Ian Gillan was born in New Zealand, lived – albeit unbeknownst to Herr MacGregor who was deep-frozen for much of the time – for a long time in Australia, was married to Nicole Kidman and plays guitar left-handed. Not badly either, what did we need all those pesky DP lead guitarists then for?!
– All members of current DP are from an alien race outside of our galaxy and dimension. LET HIM WHO HAS THE RIGHT X-RAY SPECS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_specs
RECKON THEIR TRUE NATURE!!!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zSlVqhn7Pko
PS: 🤣😈🤣 What a great vid they have made for Diablo!
June 7th, 2026 at 19:15Riff
Tommy Bolin – Homeward Strut (TEASER)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdeb9gTgB_g
June 7th, 2026 at 21:33Steve, The Fog and They Live! are both cult classics of John Carpenter! The master of B- to C-movies.
To me it sounds like DP three seconds into the song! All the core ingredients of the tried and trusted recipe are there. And not diluted at all but condensed and concentrated to three minutes. 🤗
June 7th, 2026 at 22:30@ 47- you have no doubt heard of that saying ‘ignorance is bliss’. Also another, ‘you cannot be hurt by the things you never know’. It is wonderful believe me, no superficial ‘celebrity’ nonsense, a nice clean feeling, you should try it Uwe. Cheers.
June 7th, 2026 at 22:35#25 Mike:
I can agree with you on some things, but Don’s “clean” Hammond sound is the same since Bananas, as is his style.
That Steve experimented with Purple, and that Purple experimented with Steve is true for the first albums, but from Rapture onwards for me the songwriting was weak, there were no riffs, the tempo was too slow and there was no hard rock.
If this is what you call “experimenting” I’m glad Purple doesn’t experiment anymore!
#51 Steve:
They had already run out of ideas and recycled them with Morse from the excellent Bananas onwards…=1 It was a breath of fresh air!
going back to the song, in addition to the melodic progression of I got your number, I also hear a rhythm that reminds me something from Hush, and then the chord that launches the chorus is the same one that launches the chorus of All the time in the World.
The advantages are BigIan’s lyrics, the lively rhythm and a compact sound.
June 7th, 2026 at 22:48Even in this song I would have preferred more detail on Roger’s work on bass
However, it’s a song that sticks in your head and makes you want to listen to it again, and this is the current Purple’s goal.
The line “In the nick of time was rescued by a passing gondolier”
June 8th, 2026 at 01:35…” alone is Nobel Prize-worthy! 😎
The band members boasted about the heaviness, 70”s-songwriting style, bla bla, etc..
So far from the 2 songs, I didn’t get any of that. Attempts at marketing tricks it seems. Arrogant Boy was, sorry to say, boring and forgettable. Diablo is even Apres Vous in different ways (but I enjoyed Diablo, don’t get me wrong).
In all fairness, the band (except Simon) do not have much thing to prove anymore and have earned their place to have fun with the music. But that’s the point, they could have go more diverse in songwriting department, instead of making fans keep talking about quickly realizing “This song reminds me of..”, “The riff reminds me of..”, “The rhythm looks like..”
Even if they lack new ideas, adaptation of parts from classic composition, old blues or jazz standards are welcome, just like Nothing at All, one of the greatest Purple composition
June 8th, 2026 at 02:12@39. MacGregor. You are correct. Keith Urban is kiwi along with Karl Urban (actor Lord of the Rings, Bones in Star Trek) but no relation.
June 8th, 2026 at 03:56Now, back to Diablo, the jury is out for me on this one. The only positive is that the rest of the album can only improve.
Cheers
Phil
@52
“Not badly either, what did we need all those pesky DP lead guitarists then for?!”
– I squinted a few times too and thought it looked indeed like IG! ☺️
I like the video, it has a bit more…well dangerous is a too strong word, maybe ‘risky’ covers better, feel to it.
June 8th, 2026 at 04:46It was a typical Purple video, just in another colour 😃
#47 Uwe, the radio stations where I live may not play more music with more guitar and keyboard solo’s than DP put out but, at least most of the music is better than anything today’s current line up of DP has put out so far.
June 8th, 2026 at 07:20Fla76:
I think you’re absolutely incorrect on a few accounts. We can agree to disagree about Rapture and Now What?! – I love them both – however to say there is no hard rock on either is untrue – Wrong Man has a very heavy riff as does Out of Hand, and on those records the band continued to experiment and improvise – Bob has gone on record saying the intro to Uncommon Man was improvised live off the floor.
As for Don’s sound being clean since Bananas: not true.
Go listen to the solos in I Got Your Number, or Hell to Pay, or Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye or the chaos in the middle of Time for Bedlam.
Better yet, the intro for Money Talks or Sun Goes Down – are you honestly going to tell me that’s a clean Hammond?? Balderdash!
Don knows how to make the Hammond growl exquisitely – he’s just chosen to go for a cleaner sound since Whoosh, and why I’ll never know, but I do know this: that’s not the usual Deep Purple sound!
Jon made this mistake too in the 80s and 90s – it was Steve who encouraged him to return to that lovely warm growly Hammond on Purpendicular, and we got that gorgeous nasty snarly sound back that we all know and love.
Don does have an overall cleaner tone than Jon, I will grant you this, however, this most recent sound is too clean, it is pristine to my ears.
By God, we need that organ muddy again! I pray this is just a phase!
June 8th, 2026 at 08:49Bloody hell, Rush have assumed control. They are back with a bang, loud, hard and heavy. Stand aside mere mortals. Anika Nilles on the drums indeed. A very fit lady put to the task with all that is progressive and nailing it. Geddy and Alex on song as ever, bravo. Just remember Karin, April 4 next year in Copenhagen, be there. And you too Uwe, in Germany, a few dates, take your pick ole son! Go and see some real hard rock for a change instead of diddling about all the time! Cheers.
https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/rush-return-kia-forum-setlist
June 8th, 2026 at 10:39…can’t they get Blackmore to write some riffs for them …then get the session player to play them on the record ! Lol
June 8th, 2026 at 10:48# $ “First listen it reminds me of Apres Vous.” 100 %!!!
June 8th, 2026 at 11:39I really like the song, more so than Arrogant Boy though that wasn’t bad either. It‘s a real butt-kicker and catchy. Plus the dueling solos are flashy and succinct. And I prefer songs that are only three minutes, but I wish for them to last longer, to those which last six minutes and I‘m longing for the fade-out after three! 😂
June 8th, 2026 at 14:10I dunno, Leslie, DP have never been a singles band and, frankly, I never thought they were the greatest, most accessible songwriters either – any line-up btw. A lot of Purple‘s charm through the ages has been HOW they play as opposed to WHAT they play. That‘s not a knock, I of course love that band and their sound, but there is no Paul McCartney, Paul Simon or Brian Wilson among them. Ritchie had a knack for catchy riffs during his heyday, but a lot of the chords in DP and Rainbow songs are meat and potatoes (and of less than complex or refined nature). Ian Gillan is likely the world-famous singer who has sung the most songs AVOIDING
a real chorus 😂 and Mk III for all their Black influence couldn’t write an international hit to save their life. Steve Morse, for all his technical dexterity and overall musicality, has never played on any song even approaching to be a hit.
Probably the only people with some commercial nous in Purple were DC (he at least co-penned an anthem like Here I Go Again though we don‘t know what his exact contribution was) and Don Airey who has contributed to many commercially successful recordings (he has played on more chart entries than anybody else in the band). And had a Eurovision hit, so there!
All that doesn‘t change the fact that DP are a great band and able to elevate material that in the hands of lesser musicians would only be so-so. They are the indisputable leaders of guitar & organ twin attack driven hard rock over a beat that swings, courtesy of Little Ian. Isn’t that enough? It is for me.
So who cares whether the new single is brilliant, just ok-ish or a piece of shite? 🤗 It‘s newsworthy that they are still turning out music at all and I‘m looking forward to hearing Diablo played live by them. And it will likely be longer than three minutes.
June 8th, 2026 at 17:10@56
Is it an exaggeration about no riff anymore? Because there are many opening guitar riffs from Rapture up until Whoosh. Rapture of the Deep alone has many opening guitar riffs: Money Talks, Wrong Man (both are heavy!), ROTD (except if one didn’t consider this as guitar riff), Don’t Let Go, Back-to-Back, and Junkyard Blues. And although not as opener, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye also had nice guitar riff.
“No Need to Shout” from Whoosh and “Wrong Man” from ROTD to me are more rocking than many songs from =1 and the two songs from Splat!
Gillan said about returning to their heavy 70’s music, but as far as I’m concerned, I didn’t see real 70’s hard rock music either from =1 or the two songs already launched.
June 9th, 2026 at 03:02@ 67- you cannot compare a sole songwriter to a group of writers, they are poles apart. It is the way of things, there are many very successful acts that are collaborations. If Deep Purple had ever had a sole only writer, well we wouldn’t be here today. The ‘magic’ of collaboration is a wonderful thing as it brings out diversity more and more in so many aspects. It can also lead to competition and ego clashes for sure. But then again, so can the other side of the coin, a sole writer will invariably get off side with the other musicians too. When is it a ‘solo’ album or a group composion album’ That is the question. It works both ways depending on the situation. Cheers.
June 9th, 2026 at 06:24#63
“Just remember Karin, April 4 next year in Copenhagen, be there.”
– only if you’re there too MacGregor, to hold big cushions over my ears 🙉😄
June 9th, 2026 at 08:56Uwe, who was talking about singles. I’m talking about FM radio here in the States that play album cuts though the days of hearing something like live versions of Child in Time and Space Trucking on FM radio are long gone here in the States. Now all we get is studio versions Smoke, WFT, Hush, and maybe Burn. So far as I am concerned, this line up has not really come up with anything that sounds as good as a lot of the stuff played on FM radio here. As for Steve never playing on a hit, who cares. Certain tracks off his albums are played on the radio here.
June 9th, 2026 at 09:54@63
Mac:
I’ll keep it short as to not annoy the forum police.
I followed it in real time via The Metal Voice YouTube party and Reddit and I was stunned, I mean STUNNED. Very emotional for me, they just NAILED it. Can’t wait for Buenos Aires in January.
@ Back on Topic – Re: Diablo
A rehash, catering to the “please more of the same” crowd.
Does the job, people like it. Ian playing Simon’s PRS doubly backwards, funny.
Guy with spooky eyes front image … is he the “Born Again” baby’s granddad? 🙂
Best regards,
June 9th, 2026 at 12:50J.-
Herr MacGregor, I’ve already said that Anika grooves more than Neil did (who could be a bit merciless in his no doubt admirable precision).
Steve: It’s been more than 30 years since Ritchie wrote a decent riff! Never forget that it was him who once said that any musician is born with a certain, finite stack of ideas from which he makes withdrawals during his career until there is eventually nothing left. That is his philosophy, not mine.
June 9th, 2026 at 14:14After listening for a few times, my take is that Diablo is quite fine, no drama, no extasy, but very pleasent to listen to.
What I miss is this, no matter how childish (timeless adolescent fun):
https://youtu.be/lIfWn1C4jbw?is=0WKRmL65TRvlC81k
June 9th, 2026 at 18:49It is normal in Italia to get DP on radio several times a day.
June 9th, 2026 at 18:58Attila, that’s only because Italians have immaculate taste and style! Easy for you.
Wow, thanks for the link, that is un bel fusto version of Burn if I’ve ever heard one, porca miseria! Rousing enough to give ole Nero ideas all over again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEj1h7BC2b4
PS: I know it wasn’t him. Those pesky Christians …
June 10th, 2026 at 06:36The pont of my was, 50 years on they (we) enjoy playing. and listening
June 10th, 2026 at 12:13Dear Uwe, I normally do not drift from the thread, and do not comment out. But your Nero clip got me. So, sorry for all the fellows here, and probably you already know that I am an enthusiatic tourist in rock music. So, here it ends.
Also, here is a singer that was hid by a catholic priest as kórus boy (not ticking all the Nazi boxes, evidenly). And after das ding, he applied to the academy as a tenor.. just making etwas fun. And still he got in.
https://youtu.be/tUZ0tfG7tNo?is=sOmo529yDUfyFu43
June 10th, 2026 at 14:07That was beautifully sung , Hun King, danke!
Everybody, wanna catch a glimpse of Ms Kidman’s divorcee at work with Purple? Here you are …
https://youtube.com/shorts/JSjI6XGLWeM?is=DhRJWmBm5HXcSJFw
June 10th, 2026 at 18:41I had an illuminating experience I have to share here! So I gloatingly whatsapped Diablo to a couple of people to hear their views and two of them who are guitar players – my son and a former colleague who is more of an 80s style shredder – wrote/called back observing the same things:
– My Led Zeppelinista of a son (yes, I did get one of his rare calls from California again!) observed: “The organ is really good, but the guitar solo is drawing-by-numbers rock blues.”
– And the former colleague: “The song is good, great vocals, but that guitar solo – some of the lamest and tritest run-of-the-mill blues licks ever, strange to hear that from them!”
Both were of course unknowingly talking about Keith Urban’s solo (I had not told them he was on the track)! That made me smile though I don’t agree (but I’m also not a lead guitarist), I actually like Keith’s “Black Crowes”-type solo because within the context of DP it sounds fresh and different.
BTW: Herr Urban is no slouch on bass either!
https://youtu.be/bNj6MdUDJ6Q
There must be something in all that Aussie dust he had to swallow there …
June 11th, 2026 at 15:52Hey, not so bad at all, Ian’s harp taking the place of Keith Urban’s solos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G6PKFUpEJg
June 11th, 2026 at 21:24@81
The song was already growing on me and the addition of the harmonica adds a little “spice” to it. It is so much better than AB which (including the live version) leaves me kinda underwhelmed. Although I do love the lyrics…
June 12th, 2026 at 07:26#81 Uwe
It’s true that it’s a smartphone recording,
June 12th, 2026 at 13:23but it seems to me that Diablo doesn’t have the same groove live as in the studio,
maybe they need to play it a bit (on the side) to get it to the right temperature
#68 Andre:
I’ll answer you song by song:
Money Talks is a mixed soup with no riffs and no melody..
Wrong Man is sufficient but it recycles something from Bananas.
Rapture has a particular riff, on an oriental scale, but it is certainly not a heavy or canonical riff that is easy to hum..
No Need To Shout the only riff on the album Whoosh but in an anonymous song unrelated to the meaning of the riff itself
Don’t Let Go is a useless song, starting with the opening riff.
Back to Back is rubbish, except for Gillan’s Chris
Junkyard Blues is filler after filler!
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye finally some hard dick!…it sounds like a Gillan song but it plays well, maybe the chorus could have been better, but I’ll save this song!
Wrong Man, good riff and good song, but apart from the “almost” riff that weighs down the whole thing a bit, it’s still a song without a groove.
I could mention other terrible/useless/noisey/flaccid songs from the Morse era without Lord,
but first I’ll tell you that I save 3 from Rapture, I save 4 from Now What, I save 3 from Whoosh, and I only save 2 from Infinte.
so in total after Bananas I save 12 songs in 4 albums.
June 13th, 2026 at 02:32About =1 I save 8 songs..
for me there is no comparison in terms of quality of the general composition.
I correct the errors of the night:
Back To Back is rubbish, except for Gillan’s CHORUS.
I could mention other terrible/useless/BORING/flaccid songs from the Morse era without Lord etc…
June 13th, 2026 at 10:38I have to say that Diablo sounds much better live than the studio version IMHO. Gillan does a great job and the band hit a nice groove!!
June 14th, 2026 at 10:10Steve wasn’t a merchant of immediately accessible, but also somewhat confection riffs like Ritchie (“Now what can we play on the D and G string in the key of G minor today?”) and he didn’t have Tommy’s inimitable slinky approach and swagger either, but to sweepingly denigrate all his songwriting for Purple post-Jon Lord as “terrible/useless/BORING/flaccid” … strong words, Fla76! There is not a single album with Steve under the Purple banner that doesn’t contain one or more musical highlight(s) of his.
Moreover: With Jon’s departure, Don’s songwriting influence came to the fore, and if you’re saying that anything after Jon was crap, then that contains a whole lot of music co- or even chiefly written by Don. With the advent of Mk VIII, Purple’s music changed, but that wasn’t due to Steve who IIRC even preferred playing with Jon to playing with Don and had issues adjusting his style to the latter at first.
Ms Beate Flohr endorses this message!
June 14th, 2026 at 15:18Fla76… I could not disagree more. I have never been a dedicated follower of SM but he is a brillant player and brought some new and interesting things to the table.
To comment on your comments on actual songs in detail would take me the better part of the evening, so I won’t. I am still wondering about Wrong Man being a song without groove….
June 14th, 2026 at 20:17#88Max:
I repeat again for clarity that I consider Steve a magnificent guitarist, and that he was the one who revitalized Purple by providing an exceptional contribution to the first 3 albums of his MK.
At the time I was delighted with the choice of Steve as Blackmore’s replacement and I loved his diversity, his imagination, his style, his technique and even his sound.
I mean, I loved everything about him!
but then a big problem started in the band at the composition level due to everyone’s creativity which was no longer the same and to the stylistic choice of this kind of prog also accentuated by the addition of Don.
but for me it was the whole band that had a compositional decline, not the single, not Steve, not Don, everyone.
and with the arrival of Simon, even Purple themselves realized that they had lost their groove, melody and immediacy.
June 14th, 2026 at 21:56#87 Uwe:
let’s be clear, there are some great songs, but too few.
and then the majority that cannot be considered beautiful only for a bass/guitar ostinato, or for some particular sound enrichment by Don, or for a melodic line of a bridge when verses and choruses are anonymous.
anyway I’m writing here the songs that I would put in the best of post-Bananas:
Rapture of the Deep
– Clearly Quite Absurd masterpiece
– Rapture of the Deep is a great piece, but the first part of the solos is boring
+ Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, finally some hard cock!…it sounds like a Gillan song but it flows well. Maybe the chorus could have been better, but I’ll save this one.
Now what?
– Blood From a Stone is simply beautiful (aside from the usual recycled Morse solo).
+ Uncommon Man is the album’s masterpiece. I can hear Jon Lord here!
– All The Time In The World is the album’s other masterpiece, a simple, melodic, magnetic mix of tempo that touches the heart.
+ Vincent Price a good atypical piece that stands out from all the rest but clashes with the album as a whole, I save it for Gillan’s great theatrical performance and because it has a slightly harder sound than the rest of the album
Whoosh
+ We’re All The Same In The Dark is a beautiful song with a bit of funk in it, despite the wow factor of other flawed tracks, it’s perhaps the best track on the entire album.
+ Nothing At All is a great song, a masterpiece.
+ The Long Way Round is a great song!
Infinite
+ Time For Bedlam, the first near-masterpiece of the album, but unfortunately, Paicey’s arrangement is too straightforward, making it sound too limp.
– The Surprising, the album’s absolute masterpiece, nothing to complain about.
then there’s obviously Above And Beyond which has splendid lyrics, a nice soft-prog song, but in my opinion it has nothing to do with the spirit of Jon Lord and so in protest I’m not including it!
Now, hoping someone is as realistic as me, I await the lynching!
June 14th, 2026 at 22:38Flea76…I see your point, thanks for clearing it up…still I don’t agree. Artists tend to say their new product has evrrything the last ones had been missing so badly… don’t they. DP have a new album to sell…they know some folkswe not too happy with Steve (me too actually) and they got a new member
June 15th, 2026 at 08:37… so what do you expect?
Still I enjoyed ROTD big time especially the remix. Just because it is not as prog as Now What to my ears. It’s a nice hard rocking album with good tunes and even some outstanding ones. Very varied too…from Girls like that…to MTV…to Before Time Began….
No lynching, why Fla76, you picked good songs alright.
All DP line-ups have certain general traits, Mk I sounded psychedelic, Mk II was committed to hard rock riffs and improvisation, Mk III brought in Blues, Funk & Soul as Blackmore became more dramatic and introspective in his playing, Mk IV was Americanized & West Coast, Mk V Americanized & East Coast AOR, Steve brought in a US Southern Rock tinge plus US Prog variability, Don consolidated the Prog influence and Simon brought back some rock grit. I try to enjoy every era in its own context. That Ritchie wasn’t the be- and end all of DP became painfully clear to me when I realized with Rainbow that music where he has everything run his way lacks and loses something (for me) when compared to Purple.
June 15th, 2026 at 11:58@87
Sure I do!!!
@90: you are right
“Now what?
….
+ Uncommon Man is the album’s masterpiece. I can hear Jon Lord here!”
There are some into-solos you wish they would never end.
BTW the outro-solo of “Birds of Prey” feels the same.
“Whoosh
…
+ Nothing At All is a great song, a masterpiece. (BF:for me, the best song of the album and a very good video)
+ The Long Way Round is a great song!”
“Infinite
June 15th, 2026 at 15:55…
– The Surprising, the album’s absolute masterpiece, nothing to complain about”
and a wonderful Video!!
#93 Beate:
Bird of Prey is almost 6 minutes of soft-prog with recycled parts here and there and never mind, but the pace is really too slow, without surprises, a bore…
#92 Uwe:
I actually love MK with Morse, but if one does an objective analysis the compositional quality has dropped a lot in the lineup with Don, I mean THOBL was an explosion of creativity in comparison.
So if I have to find fault with Bob, it wasn’t so much in the sound, but above all in not saying “Hey guys, you’re composing too many weak pieces, we need to fix them”.
but I understand that it is not easy to tell 5 veterans like the Purples what to do or what not to do.
for Bob too.
#91 Max:
What do I expect?…that the quality songs are not the minority, but are the majority on the album, exactly as they are on =1 for my ears, so it’s an album I promote.
I have to say that Diablo is lively but a bit standard and it doesn’t give me hope, but I hope to be proven wrong with the next songs.
I consider Girls Like That a slower and less structured 69, nothing exciting.
June 15th, 2026 at 20:00MTV was a bonus track, and I don’t save anything from this song, starting with Gillan’s singing which is reminiscent of No One Came and then everything else…Arrogant boy is a masterpiece in comparison!
Fla76, I just tried to say that ROTD is quite varied, those songs being prove as they differ a lot. Girls like that is no masterpiece but certainly different to Before time began.
June 16th, 2026 at 08:53I still consider ROTD one of DP’s so-so albums, I can’t help it, I’d really like to like it more given how many fans it has here. Not a disaster like TBRO, but certainly the weakest album from the whole Morse era, irrespective whether remixed by Roger or not. It’s not the sound that was my major gripe (I can adjust my ears to less than great productions, I’m bootleg trained!), I thought the songwriting was mostly nondescript, nothing much stuck from that album. The title track and the more ballady tracks are the relatively strongest ones.
Bananas wasn’t perfect, but sounded fresher, even in your face. The darkish Abandon grows on you if you invest time in it though it lacks Jon Lord input. Purpendicular was epic and opened a new chapter for Purple, and I’m of course partial to all the Ezrin era stuff. TTC is to me like a freak compilation of single B sides, I don’t regard it as a “real” DP album, but it is fun to listen to once in a while. Sort of like The Who’s Odds & Sods.
June 16th, 2026 at 17:13It’s not without talent you manage to mention TBRO in any piece of copy that has the word disaster in it, Uwe. Will we hear about ROTD as the weakest (certainly!) SM era album from now on as well? And why didn’t Rainbow Rising get a proper bashing here?
June 16th, 2026 at 20:21#96 Uwe:
Curiously, I consider Jon’s contribution to be much greater in Abandon than in Purpendicular;
June 16th, 2026 at 22:19in fact, I would say it’s fundamental, like the sonic glue that unites the first song to the last in a homogeneous continuum.
Rainbow Rising was spared this time, lieber Max, because it was from the get-go handicapped as an album under Blackmore’s solitary guidance and vision. That is never a good thing. Blackmore was always best when he served DP as opposed to DP (or even lesser musicians) serving him. Think about it. It’s not how he sees the world, but there is truth to it. More Blackmore is to me less, if that makes sense.
Listening to TBRO makes me feel miserable, it really does. It is a grumpy, harsh and alienated album. I cannot separate it from the destructive force Blackmore had become to the band. His departure in 1993 saved DP as an organism.
Rising is at least mindlessly ebullient. I find its labored toughness somewhat be- and amusing, but it doesn’t bring me down.
June 17th, 2026 at 01:23@96 & 97
Excuse me Gentlemen, but as far as I’m concerned all bands have those albums where, when time has passed, they are not that great, but when they were released they really were a big deal!
TBRO is still, for me, s great and powerful album. I honestly love it. Seen from my colourful experience it is almost perfect…
ROTD got a new life just recently, and the addition to the album was welcomed by many, and certainly also me, even though the vocalist was missing ☺️
I can mention other bands (but I’m not gonna!) where some albums were great at the release date but a few years later, the main view on them were that they weren’t even good enough to be mentioned.
Come now, let’s agree that the personal taste is at its best personal, and not like when someone in here (well, me) state personal preferences and tastes as the eternal truth 🫣 (sorry for that btw…)
June 17th, 2026 at 04:58@ 99 – Uwe’s one eyed vision, insert an image of a cyclopes here………..Fair dinkum, talk about deliberately excluding Ronnie James Dio, but then again you have no time really for Ronnie have you. Except possibly that ELF band………and we know where they were heading. You need to get over those chips on your shoulder Uwe. They are building into a gigantic planet the size of Jupiter. Regarding your comment about Rising, from a man who had just said it was ‘spared this time’. And another final pearler for all of us who enjoy a certain style of comedy, ” I find its (Rising) labored toughness somewhat be- and amusing, but it doesn’t bring me down.” Sheesh, you could have fooled all of us then. Happy days are here again………….Cheers.
June 17th, 2026 at 07:44Glad you enjoy TBRO as well, Karin. I still feel it spawned the same amount of classic high class tracks any other DP album has. Harsh it is, Uwe – but that is a good thing in my book. It’s that much more Rock’n’Roll than say Now What?! The holy trinity of reunion Mark II albums can compare to the 70s one with IR, Fireball and MH for me. Just too bad they didn’t add another WDWTWA to the bunch.
Now call me a fanboy anybody but truth be told I do not think there is one bad DP album. I certainly have my faves and the ones that get less spins but there’s something there with each of them for me.
I just wondered – in the bigger picture, spins offs and solo albums included – which albums I’d call weak or even worse. I guess not one of them.
Judging by the times I play them I think the ones I like the least are
The Mask, The Purple Album, Windows, Difficult to cure, Now What?!, Resonate, Gillan’s Inn, Flesh and Blood, Seventh Star and half of Jolene’s ouevre ( the other half I quite enjoy). With Blackmore’s Night it may be 3/4 of the songs I didn’t listen to more than once but I really enjoyed their shows.
The ones I needed new copies of because I wore them out (metaphorically speaking…) are Play me out, FUNK, Malice in Wonderland, Clear Air Turbulence, Stormbringer, Made in Europe, Made in Japan, Come taste the band, WDWTWA, PS, HOBL, TBRO, Live at the Olympia, Bananas, Purpendicular, ROTD, Born Again, White Snake, Northwinds and Whitesnake 78-84, LLRR, IGB Budokan, Snapshot, Gillan 78-82 (with the exception of Future Shock), First of the Big Bands, Teaser, Private Eyes, Rising, On Stage, Jon Lord Blues Project, Elements, Butterfly Ball, Scarabus, Voodoo Hill Waterfall, Garth Rocket, Sarabande … and the ones I forgot to mention. 😀
June 17th, 2026 at 09:13TBRO sounds harsh, thats true and may be the reason why the more aggressive tracks (The Battle Rages on, Anya, A Twist in the Tale, Nasty Piece of Work, Solitaire and Time to Kill) work much better than the more lighthearted tunes (Lick It Up, Talk About Love, Ramshackle Man and One Man’s Meat).
The first two mentioned in that second category I think are the two most boring MK II songs; and generally I don’t feel any other MK II album has so many fillers.
On the other hand, according to my music player app, Nasty Piece of Work is my most listened to DP song (as MP3 over the past few years – so CD and Vinyl spins of course are not counted). The title track, Anya and Solitaire are praised enough, A Twist in the Tale was awesome live and Time to Kill is an underrated masterpiece to me.
June 17th, 2026 at 13:27Of course it’s all a question of taste and whether the music speaks to you or not.
Honestly, in terms of musicality and warmth, Now What?! creams TBRO into the ground for me. I can never actually quite decide whether Now What?! or Purpendicular is Steve’s best album with Purple.
To me, TBRO was definitely Blackmore’s nadir with Purple. Mk 2 was forced together one more time, but there was no magic anymore. People lapped that album up because Big Ian had returned, but it is not a collaboration where Purple enjoy each other’s presence.
Rainbow Rising otoh is for me an album for celibate male teenagers – there I said it, stone me! It’s boneheaded in its juvenile determination. The cover art, the lyrics, the dark photos, the image the band projected, the relentlessness of the music, the lack of humor and lightness … it had its time and place, but it seems to me today like something from the dinosaur age, an artefact. Rising sounds to me today more archaic than anything Purple did in the 70s, it has just not aged well at all TO MY EARS. It’s like watching a Bruce Lee movie today that was great when you first saw it as a 14-year-old. It creates nostalgic feelings, but I hate to break it to you: The lyrics of Stargazer bear no relevance for my life today (or in the last 50 years) whatsoever. It’s graphic novel escapism, that is what it is. Like watching 300 (the movie). I don’t think that measures up to Citizen Kane either, sorry. Or in its original state to John Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men for that matter.
My different perception of Purple and Blackmore stems from the fact that to many of you – that is at least my impression – Ritchie is a demi-god that automatically anointed anything he laid his hands on. But that is not how I see (and hear) him, to me he is a very good guitarist who did his best work with 70s Purple. For me the pinnacles of Blackmore’s art are Machine Head and Burn and he couldn’t have done those outside of DP.
In contrast, my semi-deity is Purple as an organism/collective, whether with Blackers, Tommy, Steve or Simon (Joe never created new music with them). That explains why I prefer a band-contained Blackmore to a pure one and that is why Rainbow in all its variations is a much lesser band to me than Purple (Rainbow never really was a “band” at all, but a Blackmore self-expression vehicle). Left to his own devices, Blackmore’s musical development is often stunted – or does anybody here really think that Blackmore’s Night have musically progressed an inch over now 30 years? 🤣 (Listen to Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and Pentangle first before you answer!)
So that was my slice of personal philosophy/explaining myself why I hear things the way I do. That doesn’t make me right and you guys wrong though. I enjoy your company and our exchange of views. But I never even for a second entertained the thought of regularly contributing on a Ritchie adulation site. Compared to Simon Robinson’s DPAS, I always thought More Black Than Purple a bit naff/embarrassing and in effect ‘Less Blackmore Than Purple’.
June 17th, 2026 at 16:12I’m not denying that there are a few decent musical ideas on TBRO, it’s the strained delivery that bothered and bothers me.
Whenever I play that album front to back (and I do that regularly out of historical interest), I take a deep sigh at the end of it and think to myself: “My oh my, it was high time he left!”
Ritchie had run his creative course with DP and nothing he has released since then – that is more than 30 years by now – has given me the impression that he would have created further highlights with them after 1993. But it was (mostly) great while it lasted. And to confuse you further: I think his performance on Slaves & Masters and on the subsequent tour was a personal artistic highlight of his. Slaves & Masters is to me the superior album to TBRO – much as I prefer IG to JLT, but Ian only found a home in DP again with Purpendicular.
June 17th, 2026 at 16:44#103 Tillythemax:
What does TBRO sound harsh compared to?
At the time, fans of Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, Manowar, Pantera, Slayer were not impressed at all by the “hardness” of TBRO…..
In those years, as a fan, I had a hard time getting my friends who listened to heavier music to listen to Deep Purple and they didn’t pay any attention to them.
#104 Uwe:
But you forget that Ritchie had his peak guitar splendor in Rainbow, exactly during the Dio period.
June 17th, 2026 at 21:51Uwe, your ears are obviously not those of a metalhead who would think exactly the opposite of you about Rising!
@ 105- “Whenever I play that album front to back (and I do that regularly out of historical interest), I take a deep sigh at the end of it and think to myself: “My oh my, it was high time he left!” I bet you didn’t think that when you first listened to the album. Your comments are easily obtained from hindsight, much easier to say after the events of many months later eh? Go on Uwe, admit it. Cheers.
June 18th, 2026 at 00:01The only ‘adulation’ of Ritchie is from Uwe himself. Who else has purchased every release that is associated with Ritchie Blackmore. Or at least most of them and not to mention Uwe’s regular attendance at DP, Rainbow and BN concerts either? Sounds a little ‘hypocritical’ doesn’t it folks. From the Inquisition itself to a martyrdom perhaps? Well, not really. People in glass houses should never throw stones. However, Ritchie and his missus and their children all do appreciate your enduring financial support Uwe. They really do! Oh by the way, aficionados here or any where else do NOT have a blind eye (or a cyclops view) to all things from the man in black. So stop the false narrative and attempting to speak for other people. Most fans are just as critical of certain music and behaviour etc from Blackmore, are they NOT? Let’s not let the TRUTH get in the way of all the bullshit. Perhaps Uwe should also cease to compare his beloved BN excursion to folk bands from the 1960’s, 70’s and onwards. Those musicians are or were doing that from day one. They were NOT rock ‘n roll slash heavy rock musicians who then upon ‘retiring’ decided to sort of get into a quasi ‘folk’ thing for an easier lifestyle etc. Of course comparing to the wonderful folk artists from that bygone era and even still to this day is another view from hind sight itself and a deliberate comical attempt by Uwe to score a few cheap points for his woeful argument. Cheers.
June 18th, 2026 at 00:32@102
“The holy trinity of reunion Mark II albums can compare to the 70s one with IR, Fireball and MH for me.”
– Max, that’s the whole secret (well cannot really call it a secret, but nevertheless..) for me: when Mark ll were together they were unstoppable, even though there were some quarrels going on. But that happens even in the best families 😊
TBRO has its place among the first four golden: IR, FB, MH & WDWTWA.
Those four albums have always been the golden standard for me, and I’ve judged all other albums against them.
Yes, stupid maybe! But now with the first two singles from the insect-basher (Splat!) I am right back to where it all started with Mark ll.
I will not talk SM down, mainly because he was a lifesaver when the Dark One left abruptly (or ‘the man in black’😁) and yes he is a brilliant guitarist, but the overall tone was softer.
Now we are back to the more solid rock which so many love. And for that SMcB has a great responsibility.
I look very much forward to July 3rd 😊
June 18th, 2026 at 04:52@105
“Whenever I play that album front to back (and I do that regularly out of historical interest), I take a deep sigh at the end of it and think to myself: “My oh my, it was high time he left!””
– Uwe, you amazes me! You must be a bit psychic 😁
I have played that album a lot, and never have I had that sentiment.
On the contrary I will say: it was loaded with suspense and energy.
Also the concerts, which I sadly didn’t see live, but I have concert recordings, oh man they were on fire.
Yes, I could feel the tension between my favourite vocalist and ditto guitarist, but I certainly never have felt the music was taken hostage because of that.
But my dear psychic, since you have these abilities, do you mind telling me the next numbers for Euro-Jackpot so I finally can afford the way I live 😁
June 18th, 2026 at 04:58@109, 110
“TBRO has its place among the first four golden: IR, FB, MH & WDWTWA.
Those four albums have always been the golden standard for me, and I’ve judged all other albums against them.”
Same for me as well. Yes, TBRO has held up well over the years and I find myself listening to it more often than PS or HOBL.
“Yes, I could feel the tension between my favourite vocalist and ditto guitarist, but I certainly never have felt the music was taken hostage because of that.”
And that tension is what made TBRO their ballsiest album since IR.
June 18th, 2026 at 08:07“I bet you didn’t think that when you first listened to the album. Your comments are easily obtained from hindsight, much easier to say after the events of many months later eh? Go on Uwe, admit it.”
That really bothers you, MacGregor cutie, doesn’t it? 😂 You’re telling a guy who bought his first Judas Priest album after reading a series of outright terrible reviews of the band in NME because that piqued his curiosity (and subsequently became a lifelong fan) that he changes his mind in the aftermath about albums because of what other people write or report? My ass I do.
I can tell you exactly what I thought when I heard TBRO for the first time (as I can for every Purple studio album actually): “Ok, so they are back together and it sounds like them, but the thrill is gone.” I was disappointed and found the album anticlimactic, duh! In contrast, I had been wary of the release of Slaves & Masters (no JLT fan ever), but was immediately won over by the quality of the songwriting (mostly at least).
And why the hell am I not allowed to follow Ritchie’s musical career and buy his product even if the last riff by him that really mesmerized me was KAYBD? Look up “chronologist” and “fan” to evaluate the difference.
Now don’t just stand there and look at me like that. Bang a boomerang or something!
https://youtu.be/_CsJCa2TlXU
June 18th, 2026 at 14:14Fla76, it’s likely an age thing (I was born 1960), but bands like Metallica, Anthrax, Venom, Megadeth, Slayer and Pantera never did much for me – anything that is much heavier than Judas Priest and I’m pretty much out. I can listen to one or two tracks of Slipknot, but it’s a chore for me.
There is also a difference between sounding rough (like Motörhead) and clinically harsh like DP did on TBRO. I don’t really like the sonics of that album, never did.
Conventional wisdom has it that Ritchie peaked with early Rainbow, I’m not entirely sure I agree. I think his playing with Rainbow became more introspective and mannered as well as brooding, but it lost a certain Rock’n’Roll fluidity happy-go-lucky’ ness to me. (I like some Chuck Berry in a guitarist.) As I have written before, I prefer Ritchie as a first among equals and in Rainbow he really didn’t have an instrumental counterpart to work off from like Jon or Little Ian. I think even Cozy diehards will agree that Cozy’s drumming was more a primal and physical experience than a cerebral one. Did he ever play anything INTERESTING? Like Paicey did at the beginning of Black Night? Cozy’s gladiatorial break at the beginning of Stargazer does little for my brain cells and his many aficionados here have yet to point me to an interesting or unusual bass drum pattern of his.
If that makes me a heavy rock/heavy metal fan of a lesser nature, I can live with it! 🤗
June 18th, 2026 at 15:10@Fla76
June 18th, 2026 at 19:12I was referring to the sound in comparrison to other Purple records. Of course TBRO was not the state of the art hardness in ’93
@ 112
You guys rehearse this privately, right? 😀
@ The Battle …
I too recall hearing TBRO in real time and thinking “Wow, nice and energetic, but these guys are on their last legs” as the momentum was totally diluted by then. We are talking now a world populated by Pantera, Dream Theater, Pearl Jam, RHCP, Faith No More, etc.
And I still feel the same, to me, the “Legend of Deep Purple” died after that last breakup.
What came after was a re-imaging of the ‘Come Taste the Band’ concept, but this time with a more professional crew and some very good music played to a remaining core of faithful fans, not unlike the post-Fish Marillion.
Not a bad ending, though, as it turned well for everyone involved.
Cheers.-
June 18th, 2026 at 19:43“Of course TBRO was not the state of the art hardness in ’93.”
You tell me, Tilly, I don’t even have state of the art hardness in 2026, but what do you as a young man in his prime of elasticity know about that! 🤗
“You guys rehearse this privately, right? 😀“
🤣
MacGregor and I are WWE veterans/warhorses,
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Undisputed_WWE_Championship.png
we like to put on a good show for everyone – families like Max and Tilly included (special rates upon request).
https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTZjMDliOTUyOHpiY3A4cWFoMXJ5bGprMzIxbXJieDY3endrOXR4NnJ5djhuaGFhcSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/l41JKUUqmAhsCG8xi/giphy.gif
But in reality, we’re twins conjoined at the hip and I know how much my Tasmanian DNA replica secretly admires my intelligence. The more emotional part of our joint brain is his though.
June 18th, 2026 at 22:46#113 Uwe:
regardless of what you say about TBRO and with which I fundamentally agree (I also much prefer THOBL and S&M even if in the latter there is the scandalous proof of Paicey playing with his hands tied and doing 2 drum rolls in the whole album to make it more commercial for America, pure madness!)
also keep in mind that probably if the great Nick Blagona had still been at the mixer the album would have been better without the horrible sound, but Nick said he decided to separate from Purple because they were a ticking time bomb at the time!
at the same time however on stage the performances were much better than in the THOBL tours and maybe even the PS tour, but I think this was Blackmore’s intentional testament before he left the band.
June 18th, 2026 at 22:49“Uwe, you amaze me! You must be a bit psychic.”
I am, Karin, I am, and with you especially: I read everything you think!
https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExbnFvZnd1YnByNmExYWx3c2d3ZnAzNmZ1ZW5oM3pwcGU2am81MnJjMiZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/j9EfZBLJsLIuA/giphy.gif
June 19th, 2026 at 00:11@118
“I am, Karin, I am, and with you especially: I read everything you think!”
– then I apologise from the bottom of my heart 🤣🤣
But cough up with the numbers for Euro-Jackpot!
June 19th, 2026 at 11:05Momma needs a new coat for winter and Anton needs a new doggie bed….
😉☺️
@ 116
Haha I love it, please don’t stop 😀
On a different topic, this morning I fired up the car (a VW, of course!) and Amazon Music threw me the “New Releases for You” playlist with the new Dan Byrne stuff!
Have I been officially Karin-ized ?! 😱
Have a great day y’all 🙂
June 19th, 2026 at 13:41The tour following TBRO had highlights, no doubt, it was a last hurrah of sorts. The Frankfurt gig I saw was really, really good (generally rated as almost as good as Stuttgart) and I left it thinking: “The album was kinda naff, but they played well and looked like they were having fun tonight.” But just two weeks later in Mannheim you could cut the atmosphere on stage with a knife, it was unpleasant to watch and listen to. Blackmore obviously didn’t want to be there anymore, Big Ian soldiered through the set. The other three kept their feelings to themselves. I thought to myself that if inner band morale decreases so devastatingly within just two weeks, then something is definitely broken for good. And it wasn’t just me, the whole Mannheim audience was hushed and taken aback, it just wasn’t pleasant to witness.
But without the psychological dead end TBRO was for the band, the other four would have never severed ties with Ritchie and
Garnered the strength and commitment to go on the journey with Steve (and what a journey it was!). So TBRO has a historical role. And if Ritchie was by that point realizing that he was done with rock, then that is a legitimate reason for him to call it quits too. Apart from the failed Rainbow recycling in the mid 90s and the ill-fated Reunionbow shows, he never returned to rock either.
PS: The sleeve of TBRO was an artistic nadir too, a clumsy and way too literal (as well as grotesquely lurid) depiction of the album title in a graphic style worthy of some third rate metal band on Nuclear Blast or Mausoleum records. There should be a law against the depiction of dragons on DP sleeves – aren’t Dio albums their natural habitat in any case? And before anyone cries out now how the Bananas sleeve was even worse: No, it wasn’t. That was in fact pleasantly Frank Zappa’ish as cover art and I could see the humor/surrealism in it.
June 19th, 2026 at 14:05I knew it was in your destiny to like DC and IGB eventually, but I am not a clairvoyant for material things!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xky9_aUbpBg
Absolute classic of a movie.
June 19th, 2026 at 15:38TBRO….Uwe… you’re dead wrong about the music – the cover on the other hand … I thought it couldn’t get worse. At least it is a tad better than the one to S&M.
Bananas was one of the – very few – better ones.
June 19th, 2026 at 16:33Maybe I would have liked the music better had the album’s atmosphere not been so strained and “let’s knuckle down to it”. That colors my judgement badly, it’s just not a happy sounding album, even where they play in major keys like during a Time to Kill. Something was off, there was no sense of this being a collective event, something a second reunion with Big Ian somehow should have been had they ALL wanted it, don’t you think? Blackmore can be a terrible guitarist when he has to back someone he really doesn’t want to stand at the mike.
I would really like to hear the early TBRO takes with the various interim singers. That would be interesting. Somehow, I can’t really believe that Roger does not have them stashed away somewhere. All bassists are liars. All the time. Everywhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6hzkBihaew
June 19th, 2026 at 18:20@120
“Have I been officially Karin-ized ?! 😱”
– that’s how I work Julio! 🥸
I have my octopus arms in all the major cooperatives ☠️
What do you think of the young man? Hopefully you have listened a bit more to him!
June 19th, 2026 at 20:09(Psst: wouldn’t he be a worthy successor to “you know who” in “you know which band”?)
#121 Uwe:
About the TBRO cover, I find it horrible too, but it fits perfectly with the album’s conflicting content!
Maybe it’s really the ugliest ever, but the ROTD cover also disgusts me….
the S&M cover is beautiful in my opinion, maybe it’s because it resembles the PS one.
certainly coming from that of TBRO, the cover of Purplendicular was even more astonishing, a real break with the past!
June 19th, 2026 at 21:31While we should never judge a book by its cover, yes I agree, TBRO cover is cheap comic rubbish to my eyes. Regarding the atmosphere during the recording sessions, a bit like WDWTWA and Stormbringer then? Still wonderful playing all round though and of course good songs at certain times. We could probably throw THOBL in there too, couldn’t we. A wonderful album in many ways. Then we have the Fireball album, a little stressed at times and some members not ‘loving it’ if that is a way of putting it. It seems that many Ritchie related albums are rather good with some angst. Even In Rock has attitude to it from all band members. It does appear that Burn, Perfect Strangers and Machine Head are the only albums that were not as ‘angsty’. There are other great acts that ‘suffer’ from that conundrum too. At least none of us were there, a lot easier to listen to and put up with from afar. Does this all point to Ritchie? NEVER! It was Ian Gillan’s fault all along, even on Stormbringer. A dastardly creature he is. Cheers.
June 19th, 2026 at 23:20@ 120 – you should have been here about 12 years or so ago J. This place was a cauldron indeed and I was party to that in some aspects. It still baffles me as to how the moderators here survived all that. Surely less resilient men would have capitulated, but they stood firm and sailed the good ship THS into calmer waters. Then, Father Uwe Hornung turned up and laid his calming ‘spiritual’ influence on this site and all was indeed good. Until the lady of the north homed into view on her ‘Longship’. But Father Uwe calmed the waters again, even Karin’s doggie was bemused, ‘master, you have NEVER submitted like that ever before to ANYONE’. So we have Father Uwe and his influence from his Catholic upbringing steadying all influences, even mine. Does this sound like I am pretending to submit also? You bet it does, until my next strike that is. Cheers.
June 19th, 2026 at 23:53@ 125
So Uwe was right all along then, you ARE the “Burn” lady! 😀
Seriously, yes, if “someone” retires this year and “some legendary b(r)and” decides to move on into the future, it would be a good fit for sheer range and vocal strength. Even better, throw a new-look Dino-fronted Whitesnake along and it would be an interesting proposition to see.
@ 126
“The cover of Purpendicular was even more astonishing, a real break with the past!”
Back then, there were a lot of theories in amd-p about the _|_ cover, with the wonderful Jon Lord finally declaring “For Christ’s sake guys, it’s a _MATCH_!”
Cheers, J,-
June 20th, 2026 at 00:40I first saw the Rapture of the Deep drawing in the same, uhum, men’s magazine with a P (or was it an H?) where Roger apparently found it, most certainly just like me leafing it through to find the interviews. While not the most impressive – or gripping – pictorial content of that particular issue, I liked it already back then. There is a lot of surrealist detail in it that raises questions. It’s actually what I like best about ROTD.
Herr MacGregor, I hear you, I always do. You’re perfectly right that there were “difficult” albums before TBRO, quite a few actually, and all of them somehow still worked. On TBRO I just feel that the ship capsized and things became destructive. The core issue of the album is of course that it contains music written with other singers in mind and that IG was not the type of singer to stomach that in a band he considered “his own”. You know what he thinks of DP line-ups that don’t include him.
June 20th, 2026 at 02:14I first saw the Rapture of the Deep drawing in the same, uhum, men’s magazine with a P (or was it an H?) where Roger apparently found it, most certainly just like me leafing it through to find the noteworthy interviews. While not the most impressive – or gripping – pictorial content of that particular issue, I liked it already back then. There is a lot of surrealist detail in it that raises questions. It’s actually what I like best about ROTD (and the lyrics of course).
Herr MacGregor, I hear you, I always do. You’re perfectly right that there were “difficult” albums before TBRO, quite a few actually, and all of them somehow still worked. On TBRO I just feel that the ship capsized and things became destructive. The core issue of the album is of course that it contains music written with other singers in mind and that IG was not the type of singer to stomach that in a band he considered “his own”. You know what he thinks of DP line-ups that don’t include him.
June 20th, 2026 at 02:16Some things can’t be mentioned too often …and the fine artwork of ROTD sure is one of them. I liked it instantly, Uwe. And I think the colourized one on the remixed version’s eben better. Bought the vinyl so it might grave my wall one day soon…as soon as I found a nice frame for it (fleamarket, golden or something…not one of those cheap black album frames from Amazon).
Purpendicular and TBRO may be my fave DP artwork. Made in Japan is good I think. IR and Burn are iconic, S&M and CTTB, HOBL are pure kitsch, PS acklustre.
June 20th, 2026 at 11:10@129
Honestly Julio, I’m a nice, little old lady, sitting in my rocking chair with my knitting and a little thin cup of tea, you know watered down so my sleep won’t be disturbed ☺️
What ever Uwe and MacGregor have been telling are all rumours, made up by men who know absolutely nothing about me! 👵🏼
Or maybe that’s a lie too….
We have 30 C in Denmark now, so no burning here, thank you very much 😄
I’m glad you like the young man!
However a new Ian Gillan he can never be. Ian’s personality is so amazing, not many live up to that.
Oh yes, I know this man who does! He also enjoys cucumber in salad and lots of dressing… but enough about that 😉
Let’s hope there is something in that water Ian and the rest of the band drinks, so they can continue perpetually 🙏🏼💜
June 20th, 2026 at 11:35@116 No worries, nothing wrong with becoming more of a soft rock guy as time wears on. And when necessary, you can always go back to the Blue Pills (or what was the name of that swedish Band with the female singer again, I saw opening for DP in Mosbach 2016?)
June 20th, 2026 at 12:41@ 128
Dear Mac, thanks for the recap, very entertaining 🙂
I assume Uwe’s firm was hired to help steer the forum and the dude kinda liked it and decided to stay anyway? I mean, NOTHING is impossible in DP universe! 😀
Can’t wait for the new album’s release and subsequent discussions.
June 20th, 2026 at 13:00Have a great weekend!
J.-
@ 133
Nice, Karin!
Down here we drink something called “Mate” which is a disgusting sour tea, on which you pour hot water straight into the “cup” and then drink it directly through a metal straw (I swear). Cucumber..mmm only on a BK Whopper!
Back on topic, DP seems to be in a very good place right now, certainly I am looking forward for the new album, interesting times ahead.
Have a great weekend
June 20th, 2026 at 18:13J.-
@134, @116 Indeed… back in the day in Mosbach looking at one of those Blues Pills alone might have done the job alright.
June 20th, 2026 at 19:06#128 MacGregor:
dear Mac,
June 20th, 2026 at 19:24I used to watch THS 25/30 years ago but I spent many years without visiting these pages again, so since you’ve piqued our curiosity, you can’t help but tell us what happened here a dozen years ago!
Tilly, what a fine young man you are, so compassionate toward the elderly and their plights, your father must be very proud of you! 😘
I was quite amused by Bues Pills and their celebration of early 70s Stoner Rock with a female voice when I saw them at Loreley together with Status Quo (no pre-recorded backing tracks) and ZZ Top (backing tracks galore, they could have stopped playing and no one would have noticed the difference).
Max, yes it’s true, if there was one thing that was truly, truly horrible about Mk IV, then it was that awful CTTB cover, cheeeeeeesy!
June 20th, 2026 at 21:07@136
“Down here we drink something called “Mate””
– oh I know about Mate! All the health freaks here swear by it 🙃
Well, I may have exaggerated (or the opposite, what is that? Understated?
Because I never drink tea… but coffee 😍
https://youtu.be/JXyDZsychAk?is=CqF89ve5RG_P-HW_
Julio, you eat burgers?
I stick to cucumbers, ok and carrots, well tomatoes too….
Yeah, Purple – those guys amaze me on a daily basis 😊
June 21st, 2026 at 08:32I had expected a third single before the album was released. But never mind because the older we get, the faster time goes by, and now I just need to sleep 12 more nights 🤩 and then we all go Splat! (Yeah like a bug on a windshield, but what a way to go….)
@140
Hi Karin,
“Mate” is not a health beverage per se but more of a cultural, traditional hot beverage also meant for sharing in a round of friends or family. Keeps you warm and lucid, a nice everyday companion. Among rock stars, the only one I know that drinks it is James Hetfield from that band with the very shy Danish drummer (if you search “James Hetfield drinking mate” you can see it for yourself).
Burgers not usually, but sometimes the kids demand it and I go along 🙂
— Back to topic now —
Yes, looking forward to new album, to me this new music has something that has been missing for a long time in DP’s music. We shall see! Amazon Music lists it as available on 3rd July.
Have a nice Sunday!
June 21st, 2026 at 15:13J.-
@141
Ohhh I was thinking Matcha tea…sorry 😊
Do you find Lars to be a shy drummer? Oh well, maybe he is 😄
https://youtu.be/CjDRoHMHwjU?is=y541KIr-K1-0gFYa
I don’t like Metallica, but have always found Lars kind.
Splat! will be welcomed warmly in my ears….
June 21st, 2026 at 21:16#140 Karin:
Karin I’m surprised you didn’t notice this link from Uwe in another thread:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkrk9LdKYL8
here you can see several images where the Purples are all dressed in white, so I deduce that the next video will be there!
June 21st, 2026 at 21:43I’m awaiting recipes and cooking instructions any time soon in this publication…. about time too! Health advice and life hacks – how many carrots a day are good for you, the benefits of Mate or how to include cucumbers in your daily routine can only be a start.
By the way and to make sure we’re not off topic: Any songs about Mate at hand? Or vegetables?
Cheesy…cheers to that, Uwe…and oh yes, proud I am.
June 21st, 2026 at 22:23@ 138 – Fla76, yes I remember 1998 well, first computer access and into the ‘real’ word of online ‘behaviour’. One of the first things I searched for was my favourite bands, Purple, Sabbath, Zeppelin, Floyd, Tull, Yes and Crimson. I came across this site then but didn’t participate until around 2011/2 era. It looked like a ‘Wild West’ sort of situation quite frankly, he he he. I did comment at that late 90’s time on King Crimson’s ‘Elephant Talk’ site, but it only ran for a year or two due to incessant vitriol from certain people. It was pulled and for good reason. I think I was commenting at Joe Siegler’s Black Sabbath site before THS site. Karin will be appalled that two other bands were deemed ‘accessible’ by me online before Purple. anyway. mind you she was probably a regular at Oasis’ site, work that one out! Comments moderation is one of many reasons this site is still functioning, where as other sites were not prepared to go through all that repeatedly over the years. As I said years ago, I could be a moderator, but I would only allow my posts through and delete everyone else’s. At least I would win my arguments and I would NOT have to put up with Uwe Hornung at all, he he he. I see my ‘role’ here these days as to keeping ‘Father Uwe’ and the Lady of the North in check. Everyone else is fine including your’s truly. It is just those two, (the Teutonic connection syndrome). For some reason they both need constant monitoring and being repeatedly pulled into line. And now that they are sending each other parcels in the mail, well we can only ascertain where that scenario is going to end up, can’t we? Cheers.
June 21st, 2026 at 23:16“Any songs about Mate at hand? Or vegetables?”
Pardon me for interrupting but I couldn’t resist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BAu059IMYw
June 21st, 2026 at 23:58@142
Ha ha nooo, totally different thing!!
@ 144
Good God, Max, I’m so sorry!!!
Let me please try to redeem myself, before you, if perhaps I may still have the chance:
After these few days, what do you think about “Diablo” in the end?
A good choice for a second single?
Did you like it more or less than Arrogant Boy?
Is the tempo the most effective one for the material at hand?
What do you think of Don’s keyboard sound?
Too much harmonic drawbars pulled out on his Hammond settings perhaps?
Could have been better with Jon-style root-fifth voicings and less use of the Leslie cabinet doppler-effect?
Is familiarity a good or bad thing in regards to long running band promotional singles?
Is the lab-clean Ezrin production a win or lose with the remaining fan base?
Lyrically speaking, regarding the theme of taking risks in life, do you believe Ian is writing from an autobiographical place or is it possibly a critique on the conservative politically correct media driven culture?
And why “Diablo” in Spanish, what does it add really? Why not simply “Devil”?
And about Simon? The ace the band needed to reclaim rock flavor? Or a cheaper Morse-a-like?
Maybe a plot by Don to conquer total control over the harmonic real estate?
Do you think there should be a third single, before or after the album’s release?
If so, should it be a ballad or a rocker or perhaps something completely left field?
About the video production: does the Hamburg soundstage faux-performance style of all the recent videos benefit the band’s exposure, or perhaps a more upscale production would project a bit more in the rock mainstream?
Ian pretending to play Simon’s PRS doubly backwards: funny comedic relief or hidden slight to past “banjo players”?
I would love to read your insights and impressions on each and every preceding aspect specifically regarding the current Deep Purple single, “Diablo”, and once again my deepest (purple) apologies!
Regards, J.-
June 22nd, 2026 at 00:53@144
Sorry, will of course only write about Purple and stuff
June 22nd, 2026 at 06:14@143
Thank you, no I wasn’t aware of that
June 22nd, 2026 at 06:15@145
“Karin will be appalled that two other bands were deemed ‘accessible’ by me online before Purple.”
– no not at all! I actually like a lot of Led Zep’s tunes….(and Oasis, Extreme, Mr Big, Dan Byrne….)
“mind you she was probably a regular at Oasis’ site, work that one out!”
– no no no! HS is my first 😊 and I am busy reading everything in here, so I never have the time to read at Oasis’ or others.
“I could be a moderator, but I would only allow my posts through and delete everyone else’s”
– 🤣🤣 alright then! You remind me of someone…..ahh cannot remember his name at all!
But he is easy to recognise: tons of self-tanners, right now arguing with La Signorina Meloni, and oh yes, his hairdo is wildly sought after ☺️😉
“I see my ‘role’ here these days as to keeping ‘Father Uwe’ and the Lady of the North in check.”
– thank you 🤗 I’m glad someone takes that responsibility seriously 😊
“For some reason they both need constant monitoring and being repeatedly pulled into line.”
– well, highly intelligent people need that 😄
“And now that they are sending each other parcels in the mail,”
– aww MacGregor, I would like to send a little gift to you too! But then I need your address 😃
“well we can only ascertain where that scenario is going to end up, can’t we?”
– I can’t! Please enlighten me 💡
Let me end this post with a nice tune:
https://youtu.be/6tlSx0jkuLM?is=z-Wm0Q2iN57sL_3D
That Page guy is not bad at all 😊
But of course, no one on this green earth can ever be as colourful in my head as these splendid guys:
June 22nd, 2026 at 11:03https://youtu.be/xROFR8DEbyk?is=geNENJdvV3Dk0B-s
If I could give you a sample of what is going on in my mind whenever I hear this voice, then you wouldn’t be that harsh on me 😊
@ 147 / 148
Ouch… I was just making fun of all of us – as I tend to go off topic myself all the time. I meant recipes and health advice were just the next step giving our age (well, with the exception of Karin of course!) We would not need to visit any other pages anymore then.
Those questions are very elaborated J From Faraway and I am still working so … but I will think it over during the summer holiday.
@ Russ 775
June 22nd, 2026 at 14:48Thank you! Never heard of that one. Quite entertaining. So now there’s only a mate-Song left to be desired. Lots of songs about wine, whiskey or beer … strange that mate gets so little coverage, isn’t it.
@151
“Lots of songs about wine, whiskey or beer … strange that mate gets so little coverage, isn’t it.”
I’m sure that if a song about mate exists Uwe will be posting a link to it.
June 22nd, 2026 at 20:19@ 151
Yes, but I’m a bitter old man with no sense of humor, that’s why I won’t be sending you my upcoming masterpieces “Mate-ing Head [73.2 th Anniversary Edition]” and “Come Taste the Mate [Steven Wilson Dolby Atmos 15-Disc Remix]” !!!
And ‘al Diablo’ with this! 😃😁
June 22nd, 2026 at 22:22Karin, I really like the Sort Sol CD you sent me – pleasantly dark and desolate, I’m reminded of Nick Cave! Perfect to brighten up your day when you feel like slitting you wrists. Tak skal du have!
June 22nd, 2026 at 23:03@154,155
You hear Sort Sol like that!!
Ok then – I don’t at all.
Actually to me it’s sincere, melodic and heartfelt rock. Not dark in any way.
Steen’s voice is unmistakably beautiful and honest in a brutal way. Or at least that’s how I hear it 😊
Yes the Meloni woman gave him “kam til sit hår” 😆 ask Edith what that means….
June 23rd, 2026 at 06:59