DEEP PURPLE

This is maybe the best album that the original line-up of the band recorded. While there are still some Classical Music arrangements (in "Blind" and in the long intro to "April"), they are used in a less "pompous" way than in their second album ("The Book of Taliesyn"), and the musical style of most songs is gradually changing more to the musical style that particularly Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord and Ian Paice wanted for the band (more Blues, Hard Rock and moving more towards Heavy Metal in songs like "Chasing Shadows", " Fault Line", "The Painter", "Why Didn`t Rosemary", "Bird Has Flown" and the second part of "April" ). Still, there are some Psychedelic influences in some parts (particularly in "Fault Line") and also some Prog Rock arrangements. But as a whole this album sounds more to me like the producer (Derek Lawrence) let the band have more control with their arrangements and music compositions, so the band sounds more "natural" and not as "forced" as in their second album. The band sounds more "mature" in the recording of this album, and in general this album was better recorded than their previous two albums. They also only recorded one cover (Donovan`s "Lalena") which sounds a bit Pop Rock, but it still has a very good arrangement.

Maybe this was the album on which Rod Evans sang better than in their previous two albums, and the rest of the members of the band began to show some improvements in the playing of their respective musical instruments. As a whole the band sounded better. Unfortunately, there were some problems with the musical direction that Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord and Ian Paice wanted for the band in comparison to Rod Evans and Nick Simper. The trio wanted a more heavy musical style for the band. So, by mid 1969 it was decided that Evans and Simper were going to be replaced by Ian Gillan and Roger Glover. But the new line-up was still going to record a live album with an orchestra before going directly to play the musical styles that were more adequate for this band: Hard Rock / Heavy Metal.

While the fragment from Hieronymus Bosch`s "The Garden of Earthly Delights" is a bit "strange" to be used for a cover design, it still is a good cover, I think.