Search - Deep Purple :: In Rock: 25th Anniversary (UK)

The birth of mainstream, modern metal?

dfle3 | Australia | 07/23/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"
Recently I've been checking out bands which get dubbed the originator of heavy metal...bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Have heard how Deep Purple sometimes gets given this label too, so I thought I'd check out their album which sometimes gets this distinction. To my ears, the debuts by Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin don't really sound like the heavy metal I know...they're both quite rootsy, but Black Sabbath do seem to introduce lyrical themes in their debut which heavy metal will obsess over in future (occultish ideas). Led Zeppelin II do have a kind of mainstream, heavy metal type song in "Whole lotta love", however, as a whole, I don't find it particularly metal. "In rock" does sound old school metal to me, and it came out before Black Sabbath's masterpiece, "Paranoid" was released. "Paranoid" DOES sound metal, whereas their debut didn't. So, for the moment, I'll give this album the distinction of giving rise to the heavy metal sound, in an album. It must be said, that it sounds to me like Deep Purple's new lead singer on this album, Ian Gillan, had a big influence on heavy metal singing, with his glassy wailing. Maybe that is jumping the gun a bit too much, as Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin did that kind of thing on Led Zeppelin II, which came out before this album, but maybe Gillan did it in a more metal way. If you want to go back further, pop star of the 1960s, Frankie Valli did a similar sort of thing, singing wise (think "Rag doll" and "Dawn" for starters), but it took guys with the guts to transfer that style into the rock arena, like Plant and Gillan, to make it a feature of some heavy metal music. Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson comes to mind as a singer who is treading down the Plant/Gillan path, vocals wise.



Anyway, enough of that, here's what I think of this album:



Best song:



Black night - it's not on the original album, so it's a terrific bonus to get on this album. To me it sounds like that second version of this song on this cd is superior, sound quality wise. Can't say I can really tell the difference between the two versions, apart from the second version sounding crisp and fresh, as well as featuring a cool drum count in beat, which the first version doesn't have. On the cd display, the drum count in is lumped with the previous track, which I don't really appreciate.



Child in time - an original album track. A 10:18 minute long epic song. Vocally, Gillan goes down Robert Plant's route from "Whole lotta love", but he takes it to whole new level...really hits the high notes, and riding the wave all the way into the beach. Both singers really play on the highly sexualised nature of their singing. The song itself is partly an organ heavy ballad, whilst the rest is more towards heavy metal. Deep Purple's organ sound is distinctive to them...The Doors are really the only other band that comes to mind when you think of bands utilising this instrument. One guitar solo in this song brought to mind Jimi Hendrix' style, and some of the fretwork in this song seems pure heavy metal to me, as is the drumming at times, which occasionally uses a military style rhythm, in an emphatic manner. The outro to this song is reminiscent of The Beatles. Gillan uses the phrase "Oh no" in this song, which may be referencing Black Sabbath's debut album...one of the songs off of that features the same lyric and sound, I think.



Speed king - 5:53 in length. Features a raucous intro of heavy metal sounding noodling guitar solo. The organ in this song sounds like the church variety, and later it sounds like something that The Doors would compose. Lyrically, the song cites Little Richard, and Gillan has his heavy metal defining singing going on...high pitched shrieking. The song is bassy too, and the riff sounds like modern metal. Perhaps this song could be viewed as being influential for later movements in metal like Speed and Thrash. Just guessing. The song also features the lyric "Come on baby, drive me crazy" which is, if I'm not mistaken, also a line from a KISS song (on the third version of this song on this album, Gillan's voice actually reminds me of KISS' Paul Stanley, vocally). The third version of this song might have the better sound quality to it too. The second version of this song features the piano instead of the organ. Also, the second version of this song has what sounds like the guitar mimicking a vocal part from a 1960's soul song sung by Wilson Picket, called "Land of a 1000 dances", from memory, the "na na na na" part of that song.



Bloodsucker - has a chugga chugga type riff which reminds me of Black Sabbath...but not sure if the Sabbath that it reminds me of came out before or after this song. Gillan gives his vocals a ballsy sound in this heavy metal type track. Features the organ too.



Living wreck - a catchy track with a jagged, shrieky organ sound. Bassy with some of the lead guitar work being catchy in a funky kind of way. Gillan's vocals reminded me of the lead singer of Australian rockers Baby Animals, especially their classic track "Rush you"...the lead singer of the Baby Animals is a woman! Similar vocal style though. Think the Aussie group formed in the 1980s.



Cry free - has some fast and intense drumming. The lead guitar is metaly, and the organ is featured too. Another bonus song which was not on the original album.



The rest of the original album:



Flight of the rat - 7:55 in length. The introduction to this song makes me think it might be influential as far as guitar style and song introductions go. The song is bookended by a sort of 1950s style rock'n'roll. The guitars sound very grungy and the lead guitar breaks reminded me of AC/DC, so perhaps AC/DC were influenced in this regard by Deep Purple. In the middle of the song, there is some funky drumming, and a drum solo near the end. Bassy track too, featuring the organ. Lyrics include "The memory is gone", which has echoes in Metallica's classic song "The memory remains". The second version of this song on this album has a funky sounding guitar bit in the middle...can't remember whether the original album version has this bit.



Into the fire - heavy track with a catchy groove to it. Sometimes this song's riff reminded me of Black Sabbath's "Iron man", which would be released after this album came out.



Hard lovin' man - has very nice sounding velvety notes on the bass guitar, I think. The riff reminded me of the later classic song "Barracuda" by Heart. Heart had two female singers...they sound pretty heavy metal in their singing in that song...remarkably similar to the sound that Gillan generates with his voice, when he makes it sound glassy. The outro to the song features some pure heavy metal guitar noodling.



Lastly, the album has another bonus track in the instrumental "Jam stew" which is bassy and features lead guitar with solos.



Overall, this is a good album which is entirely listenable (I'm not talking about the bonus tracks here, which are all separated by up to around half a minute of the band or engineers chatting. No gold in that, but the bonus version tracks often sound better than the original album versions provided on this cd). The length of the original album is about 43.5 minutes, but full material on this album roughly doubles the playing time. A good album to get for seminal works in the rock music, with Gillan's genre defining vocals, and the band's distinctive brand of organ based heavy rock!"

Classic

Bill Your 'Free Form FM Handi Cyber | Mahwah, NJ USA | 11/24/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It is obvious listening to this that Deep Purple were the highest order musicans who just happened to choose hard rock. Pre-Gillian Purple was, in fact, semi-classical, and Ian Gillan had the vocal chops to sing in Jesus Christ Superstar.



And if you take a careful listen to In Rock, you will hear it IS, in fact, progressive rock. Just with taste. heavy? Absolutely. Some of the hardest rock out there in 1970. You could scare your parents with In Rock, back when hard rock was truely a musical and social threat.



But if you listen to the organ solo on "Speed King," you can hear both Bach and Larry Young. "Bloodsucker" has complicated riffs and stops Blue Cheer and even Black Sabbath could not touch for their level of complication. "Child In Time" is almost classical and opera--which Gillan could have sang anytime he wanted.



I also have to take large hats off to Rodger Glover, perhaps the rock era's most underrated and underappreciated bassist. Listen to some of his work on Fireball--"No No No" comes to mind, and you hear he could funk and duel with Chris Squire, Greg Lake, all the other heavies. Glover locks in by choice, hiding his briliance in subtle little runs and rock solid time. He is minimal by choice, and as with any great musican, chosen restraint is facinating to hear.



This is blasting metel that holds up forty years on, but for fans of really good, complex music, In Rock holds plenty for you. The wealth is all in the details, which you hear once your eardrums start working again."

The Best

Gregory Hagan | Valparaiso, Indiana USA | 11/30/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My ipod says I have 38000+ songs and it does not have nearly all my music. This is the best rock and roll album ever, nothing else is even close. When they made it they did not know what they had. I doubt they know now, but buy it and enjoy."