Deep Purple - Rapture of the Deep
On October 24, 2005, "Rapture of the Deep", the eighteenth studio album by the band "Deep Purple", was released. The album was released in Europe through Edel Records, followed by its United States release on November 1, 2005, through Eagle Records.
The mid-2000s found British hard rock pioneers "Deep Purple" at one of the most exciting and charged turning points in their history. After more than thirty-five years of a turbulent career, countless legendary lineup changes, and a moving and respectful farewell to band founder and Hammond organ master Jon Lord in 2002, the band's eighth lineup emerged as a cohesive, hungry, and self-confident five-piece. Alongside the legendary and indomitable rhythm section of drummer Ian Paice and bassist Roger Glover, and charismatic vocalist Ian Gillan, two musical masters were now working to inject new blood into the veins of the purple monster: the virtuoso American guitarist Steve Morse, who had already completed a decade in the band's ranks since joining in 1994 and recorded "Purpendicular" and "Abandon" with them, and the veteran keyboardist Don Airey, who had previously played with "Rainbow", Ozzy Osbourne, Gary Moore and "Black Sabbath", and became a regular member on the previous album "Bananas" from 2003.
But behind the scenes, a complicated business drama was brewing. After the release of "Bananas," the band members revealed deep frustration with the lack of marketing investment from their historic record label, EMI, with which they had been signed since the days of "Shades of Deep Purple" in 1968. The quintet made the courageous decision to end their long-standing relationship and embark on a new path with the independent German record label Edel Records in Europe and Eagle Records in the United States. In fact, when the band members entered Chunky Style Studios in Los Angeles in March 2005, a studio that had also previously been used by the band "Korn," they still did not have a signed distribution contract, and they financed the start of the recordings out of their own pockets, with complete faith in the new material.
The production task was once again entrusted to American producer and musician Michael Bradford, who had also worked with the band on "Bananas". Unlike the previous album, which was written and recorded while the band was first introduced to Don Airey in the studio, this time the quintet arrived after an extensive eighteen-month world tour that connected the musicians on a telepathic level. The writing process was conducted using the classic jam session method that has distinguished "Deep Purple" since the days of the seminal albums "In Rock" and "Machine Head". The four musicians gathered in the recording room without any pre-conceived ideas, improvising and developing riffs, rhythmic transitions and harmonic structures in real time, while Ian Gillan and Roger Glover sat in an adjacent room, listening to what was happening and weaving from the instrumental energy the melodic lines and the witty, philosophical and critical texts.
The album's title, "Rapture of the Deep", is borrowed from the world of deep-sea diving and uses the poetic term of ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau to describe the phenomenon of deep-sea intoxication, a deceptive and dangerous state of mind in which nitrogen under high pressure causes divers in the depths of the sea to feel euphoric, transcendent, and detached from reality just before deadly danger. For Gillan and his friends, the term served as a double and accurate metaphor, both for the absolute and intoxicating devotion to music within the depths of the studio and for a modern world that marches with closed eyes and blind enthusiasm toward political, economic, and social abysses. The visual vision was completed by the album cover created by graphic designer Ioannis, known for his work with "Uriah Heep," "Styx," and the "Allman Brothers Band," together with Roger Glover and illustrated by illustrator Tom Swick.
The album opens with a heavy, uncompromising storm with "Money Talks", a racing hard rock track that relies on Don Airey's massive, distorted Hammond organ roar and Steve Morse's cutting guitar riff. As Airey himself attests, the album's sound was born heavier, livelier and more immediate than its predecessor, and "Money Talks" proves it from the first second. Over the dense groove of Ian Paice and Roger Glover, Gillan fires a sarcastic indictment of corporate greed and government corruption, proving that at sixty his voice still retains its roughness, power and captivating stage presence.
It is immediately followed by "Girls Like That", a more rhythmic, funky and catchy song that showcases the humorous and liberated side of the band, with Paice's springy and brilliant drum work and Morse's melodic and playful guitar riff. The tone becomes much darker, tense and dramatic on the third track "Wrong Man", one of the album's most powerful songs. The song was inspired by the Atlanta murders of the late 1970s and the moral and legal questions surrounding the conviction of Wayne Williams and the American justice system. The choppy rhythmic opening and heavy, rolling riff create a sense of prison cell claustrophobia, while Morse and Airey exchange virtuoso solo beats that recall the band's golden age in the 1970s.
The album's pinnacle, and in the eyes of many one of "Deep Purple"'s greatest works in the Steve Morse era, comes in the title track "Rapture of the Deep". It is a six-minute masterpiece that opens with a mesmerizing oriental and Middle Eastern motif played in perfect harmony by Morse and Airey, reminiscent in its somber and mystical atmosphere of past classics like "Perfect Strangers" and even sparks from "Gates of Babylon" by Rainbow. The song gradually builds from melodic and restrained verses to a wide-ranging chorus, before bursting into a breathtaking instrumental transition section in which Morse's guitar and Airey's organ conduct a rich and complex melodic dialogue over Paice's incredibly precise drumming. The song immediately became a central concert classic of the band for many years.
The album's emotional and dynamic range is revealed in all its glory as the fifth track, "Clearly Quite Absurd," is released. It's a delicate, poetic, and melancholic acoustic and orchestral ballad, with Steve Morse elegantly riffing on acoustic guitars while Don Airey wraps the song in warm keyboards and melancholic piano, and Gillan delivers one of the most sensitive, mature, and exposed vocal performances of his late career. The special edition of the album even includes a new version of the song with a full symphonic string arrangement that further enhances its fragile beauty.
The second half of the album gets the adrenaline back on track with "Don't Let Go", a straight-up, kick-ass rock 'n' roll piece with a classic bluesy groove and the energy of a band enjoying every moment in the rehearsal room, and continues with "Back to Back", a display of complex syncopations and changes of meter in which the rhythm section of Paice and Glover demonstrates why they are considered one of the greatest in rock history, while Morse scatters lightning-fast arpeggios. It is followed by "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye", the fastest and most aggressive track on the record, which opens with a storm of drums and a racing guitar riff reminiscent in spirit of the wild energy of "Speed King" and "Fireball", with a dizzying keyboard solo by Airey that combines classical and heavy rock influences.
Towards the end, before the album concludes, the extended editions and the anniversary edition also feature other gems from those fruitful sessions, most notably "MTV", Gillan's biting and amusing satire on the culture of commercial television and music channels that have forgotten the music itself, as well as the rhythmic piece "Things I Never Said". On the original edition, the journey continues to "Junkyard Blues", heavy, rough blues-rock imbued with typical British humor in which Morse's guitar wails freely over the rich Hammond bass.
The final chord of the album is reserved for the epic, dark and mesmerizing piece "Before Time Began". For six and a half minutes, the band leads the listener into the mystical realms of progressive rock. The song opens with Roger Glover's dreamy and unusual bass fretless playing alongside atmospheric keyboards and Gillan's thoughtful and almost sensual vocals, dealing with time, evolution and eternity. Gradually, the piece intensifies and builds to an emotional and dramatic climax where Steve Morse's emotional and tearful guitar solo seals the album with a long shiver.
Upon its release in the fall of 2005, "Rapture of the Deep" was praised by critics and fans, who saw it as the band's most cohesive and heavy album since "Purpendicular", and it recorded impressive success on the European sales charts, reaching the top ten in Germany and entering the top twenty in Switzerland, Austria, Finland and Italy. The tour that accompanied the album lasted nearly six years and covered dozens of countries around the world, which led to an eight-year gap until the next and successful studio album "Now What?!" from 2013, produced by Bob Ezrin. In August 2025, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of its release, the album received a historic new era with the release of the "20th Anniversary Remix" edition on the earMUSIC label, in which Roger Glover supervised a new mix and analogue mastering of the album, giving it a deep and breathing analog volume and adding previously unreleased studio jams and instrumental takes recorded in 2005. "Rapture of the Deep" stands the test of time as overwhelming proof that even in its fourth decade of existence, "Deep Purple" refused to act like a nostalgia band and continued to create heavy, adventurous, and incredibly relevant rock.
For Listening: Spotify (2025 Remix), Apple Music
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