THE BATTLE RAGES ON...

Let's see why this is not a proper farewell to Ritchie, track-by-track:

The Battle Rages On: Blackmore repeats himself here, as he lifts the riff he played as a bridge on "Fire Dance" from the Bent Out Of Shape album, with Rainbow. They construct a whole new song around this very good riff and the result is an epic song, their best in years!

Lick It Up: Not a special song, but you can tell it's the Deep Purple you know. Powerful, rich execution, so much better than the ones from three years ago; it brings a smile to my face! :-)

Anya: WHAT?! WOW!!! What an anthem!!! If this one was released in the 70s or as part of the Perfect Strangers album, we would talk about one of the most beloved DP songs of all time. Unparalleled musicality, fantastic riff and vocals, it makes the 6:31 pass like half a minute! One of the best rock songs of the 90s, hands down. Outstanding!

Talk About Love: Nice radio friendly rocker. Nothing extraordinary.

Time To Kill: Repetitive and uninspired, I wonder how Ian Gillan sang it through without protesting. Maybe the DP song that gets to my nerves more than any other. And it lasts 5:49... What were they thinking?

Ramshackle Man: Boogie rocker in the ZZ Top style. Nothing we haven't listened to a thousand times already, and much better I must add, by bands like... well, ZZ Top for example!

A Twist In The Tale: For some reason it brought to my mind Be Quick Or Be Dead by Iron Maiden. Fast song with some nice guitar work, but somewhat directionless. It sounds like it needed refinement.

Nasty Piece Of Work: Mediocre song, by any means. The title could be sarcastic.

Solitaire: Yeah, OK... Anything interesting? No? OK, next.

One Man's Meat: Very nice lyrics with a social message, but if the music is mediocre, you do nothing. We 're talking about a song, not a poem. Nothing interesting as a composition, again.

RANKING: Anya and The Battle Rages On are the only songs that matter. The album was composed for Joe Lynn Turner, but Gillan came in, reworked some songs, and brought back the much needed energy they lost in the previous album. However, most of the songs as compositions are as weak as the ones from Slaves And Masters, if not even more. Blackmore would not want to try to bring the lost magic back anymore, and he left the band six months after the release of the album. The fact he only did one more rock album with Rainbow before the creation of Blackmore's Night tells the whole story. Two great songs can't save this album from the 2 stars rating.

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