RAPTURE OF THE DEEP

DP was one of the first bands that blowed my mind. Albums like Machine Head, Fireball or Made in Japan still are in my regular weekend music sessions... After Perfect Strangers I thought that DP was dead... but no. Rapture is not a great album -in fact musically it's too far from the 70's classics-, Gillan's voice is not what use to be and Steve Morse is just a good guitar player but the entire album has some great stuff. Renewed sounds, renewed style -not too hard and even with delicate drops of prog.

There are some great songs on the album: Rapture Of The Deep, full of arabic inffluences, some times really dark and even prog; Clearly Quite Absurd, a very nice balld; the rocker Back To Back; powerful Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye and the great Before Time Began... even when I feel there's some weak points (specially on Money Talks, Girls Like That and Junkyard Blues) the album sounds solid and full of new influences that I never heard on Purple's music before: powered metal drums, dark guitar and keyboards solos but with the classic style of Purple.

3.5* Not a great album if you compare it with the DP's classics, but highly recommended to listen during a monday morning...