Many old heads believe that Purple invented heavy metal, and I'm of the opinion that any real fan of the metal genre should be as familiar with DP, as well as Zeppelin, Sabbath, Priest and Maiden, even if not all these bands are your cup of tea. For me, Deep Purple remain in the shadow of the blackest Sabbath and the Zeppelin groove, but they certainly released a handful of records of great note to metal. 'In Rock' boasts the dense riffs of 'Bloodsucker' which Jimmy Page woulda been proud of, accompanied by Gillan's electric and soulful vocals as the lightning illuminates the grim sky and all manner of devil's crawl from under their stones. In fact, any album that boasts the organ-based 'Child In Time' and gigantic 'Black Knight' will go down as one of history's greatest records and not just within the metal realm. Hard to believe the band were once a dodgy psych '60s act although the fuzz of psych does bleed through, 'Flight Of The Rat' and the immense 'Into The Fire' brings the walls down however.
This is one of those albums that fans will waffle on about forever, just like the greatest Sabbath records, just like Jimmy Page's immortal riffs and Slayer's offensive short 'Reign In Blood', because 'In Rock' is a moment in time that stands forever to them, but for me, it's simply a very good record.
7.5/10
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