Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Deep Purple
Label: Sony BMG
Released: 1993
Length: 49:25
Rating: 4/5
»The Battle Rages On« was the last album from the legendary English hard rock champions Deep Purple recorded by their most beloved lineup, usually just called Mark II, and also their final outing with the mystical yet moody, bizarre guitar virtuoso Ritchie Blackmore. The last dance of the classic lineup was orchestrated by their management at the time, who desperately wanted to see the charismatic singer Ian Gillan back. That’s ironic, given that the very same people, under Blackmore’s baton, had helped get him fired four years earlier and brought in a short-lived replacement, the American Joe Lynn Turner (ex-Rainbow), with whom the legendary hard rockers recorded just one studio album, »Slaves and Masters« (1990).
That album had been a pretty big commercial flop, and most fans never accepted Turner as a Purple singer. With the band’s 25th anniversary approaching, management sniffed out that the MK II lineup was the only real formula that could still bring the hard rock old guard some commercial success, even in a decade as unfriendly to classic rock as the nineties. Blackmore, whose relationship with Gillan had been built on relentless hatred since the seventies, was of course beside himself at management’s decision, contorted with disgust at the thought of sharing a stage with his old nemesis. To keep the man in black, who had repeatedly announced that he was ‘no longer interested in rock music’, in the same band as Gillan, they paid a hefty sum (250,000 dollars) into his bank account at his request. But that did absolutely nothing to improve Blackmore’s resentment of the singer, so hugely popular with fans, with whom he hadn’t exchanged a word in years. If anything, it made it worse.
Deep Purple started work on »The Battle Rages On« while Turner was still in the band, and reportedly had most of the material already recorded. But Gillan’s arrival in late 1992 meant that most of the songs were re-recorded, rearranged and tailored to his vocal demands, new lyrics front and center, once another major songwriter was back in the fold. The man in black was fuming. Behaving as if the charismatic singer were invisible whenever Blackmore was around, he accused him of wrecking plenty of originally planned melodic elements with his songwriting ideas and the re-recorded versions of already written songs, something he’d been blaming him for ever since the MK II lineup first reunited in 1984.
With all that pent-up negative energy between singer and guitarist, it’s a minor miracle that »The Battle Rages On«, which couldn’t have been named more fittingly, ended up as such a surprisingly solid and good record. Plenty of the credit goes to bassist/producer Roger Glover, who not only delivered a string of melodic bass lines and excellent production that finally marched the legendary band into the nineties and shook off the AOR influences of the eighties for good, but also kept serving as chief peacekeeper between the two bitter adversaries. He got help from the oldest member, keyboard maestro Jon Lord, the one authority even Blackmore respected and honored, and from drum wizard Ian Paice, still the youngest member of the band at that point. It was exactly the contrast between Blackmore’s traditional, melodic guitar mysticism, refined with passionate blues melancholy, and Gillan’s more experimental songwriting ideas, complete with his protective, booze-soaked vocal outbursts, that helped produce some of the band’s punchiest, most innovative and in places downright epic creations. The result is that »The Battle Rages On« comes across as an exceptionally consistent record without a single dud.
The title track makes for a emphatically punchy opening, with the energetic atmosphere building from second to second. Blackmore’s irritated guitar riff rests on massive layers of Lord’s organ, while Gillan’s vocal is as pissed off as he’s always been best at, especially when he’s looked a bit too deep into the glass. Paice’s merciless drum fills dictate a fairly brisk tempo, while the atmosphere peaks in the epic chorus. As for the lyrics, Gillan clearly had his never-ending fight with his headstrong guitar virtuoso in mind. Ritchie casually shakes a piercing guitar solo out of his sleeve, while organ grandmaster Lord conjures a hyper-dramatic backdrop on the Hammond.
»Lick It Up«, one of the album’s less inspired moments, is set to a slower tempo dictated by a dirty, salty blues guitar phrase, while Gillan’s lyrics try desperately to cast himself as a guitar hero, though he certainly wasn’t thinking of his ‘best friend’. The blues guitar variation is armed with spirited drum transitions, while the incorrigible boozy reveler on vocals proves he could still hit some seriously high notes in the nineties.
The ultra-dramatic hard rock epic »Anya«, whose lyrics tell the story of a free-spirited Romani girl, is without a doubt the creative peak of the album and at the same time the most ambitious piece by the reunited MK II lineup. A symphonic-pastoral intro is followed by a sudden shift into an epic section ruled by a punchy guitar riff and a massive backdrop of orchestral-tinged synths. Gillan tells the passionate story of his mystical encounter with the Romani girl with real commitment, building to a peak in the epic chorus. Lord’s organ kingdom, backed by a mighty orchestral arrangement, repeatedly intertwines perfectly with Blackmore’s piercing, complex guitar variations across the tempo changes.
»Talk About Love«, on the other hand, is a rather basic hard rocker with multi-part vocal harmonies and a fairly minimalist rhythmic structure, with a dirty blues guitar phrase up front again, a perfect fit for Gillan’s boozy, salty vocal performance, yet another trademark tale of a painful encounter between the famous rock drunkard and the next long-legged femme fatale in the series. »Time To Kill« is a distinctly melodic number resting on Blackmore’s complex guitar tracks, Lord’s sprawling organ passages and Paice’s mighty drum transitions, while Gillan, with yet another excellent vocal performance, helps build the epic atmosphere with real gusto. Lord’s subtle synth lines in between add a lot to the rich, full sound.
»Ramshackle Man« is an energetic blues rocker with plenty of boogie rhythmic twists and Lord’s massive organ inserts. Gillan, deep in a thoroughly immersed vocal performance, once again slips fully into the role of a wobbly drunk, while Blackmore works away at the bluesy melody, kneading out complex guitar variations that peak in a closing “gastronomic” solo. »A Twist In The Tail«, a hard rocker bordering on heavy metal, shifts into a clearly faster tempo again, giving Paice a nice chance to show off his incredible speed and precision while demolishing his drum kit. Gillan is fired up once more, like a teetotaler on the warpath, while Blackmore visibly enjoys weaving complex guitar passages, complemented by Lord’s rustling organ masterpieces. »Nasty Piece Of Work« is another thoroughly representative Purple number, with the main tempo set by Lord’s dramatic layer of Hammond organ and Gillan’s passionate, once again stretched-to-the-limit vocal. Muffled but complex drum fills form a solid foundation for the man in black’s whinnying guitar phrases, and right after a short solo turn from Lord, he conjures up yet another inventive improvisation.
»Solitaire« boasts a mysterious, slightly gloomy atmosphere, where Blackmore, this time setting the main tempo with a mighty guitar phrase, has always felt right at home. Over the choppy rhythmic twists, Gillan’s vocal is deliberately pushed a bit into the background in the production, until it moves to the front over the massive organ backdrop and peaks in the epic chorus. Lord’s closing, bravura organ solo hits you right in the nostalgia and recalls the ‘good old days’ of the early seventies. »One Man’s Meat«, with its resolute guitar phrase, fierce organ layers and a peak in the dirty-sounding chorus, is as energetic a closer as the album could ask for. With help from Glover’s backing vocals, Gillan tries to sound as filthy as possible, even throwing in some screaming, while Blackmore, accompanied by harmonica, lays down his last sensual guitar solo as a member of Deep Purple.
»The Battle Rages On«, the swan song of the Deep Purple Mark II lineup, was surprisingly strong and consistent as a whole, despite Blackmore and Gillan being locked in nonstop combat like two dragons. Even though the album didn’t do well commercially, the tour that followed its release was relatively successful. The man in black still did his best to make life miserable for the rest of the band, Gillan above all, during shows on the »The Battle Rages On« tour, especially by demanding that the country abomination »Anyone’s Daugter«, originally from the album »Fireball« (1971), be added to the setlist.
The needling lasted right up until that fateful day in mid-November 1993, when he finally made good on his threats and quit mid-tour, leaving them in the lurch. Despite threatening that he was done with rock for good, he briefly revived Rainbow as a solo project, after which he finally threw classic rock into the weeds. Together with a former model and his future wife, the American singer Candice Night, he founded the bizarre folk-pop rock group Blackmore’s Night and turned into a proper village troubadour, who could pop up at any moment to help Kekec and Rožle raid the squire’s apples. For the remaining tour dates toward the end of 1993 and in 1994, he was replaced by the cult American guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani, who turned down the offer to join Deep Purple as a full-time member, which ended the Mark VI lineup before it had even really begun. The vacant guitar spot then went to the almost equally revered American guitar grandmaster Steve Morse (Dixie Dregs, ex-Kansas), who is still in the band today.
Line-up
Ian Gillan – vocals
Ritchie Blackmore – guitar
Roger Glover – bass
Jon Lord – organ, keyboards
Ian Paice – drums
Production
Roger Glover and Thom Panunzio
Tracklist
1. The Battle Rages On (5:48)
2. Lick It Up (3:50)
3. Anya (6:28)
4. Talk About Love (4:05)
5. Time To Kill (5:44)
6. Ramshackle Man (5:32)
7. A Twist In The Tale (4:12)
8. Nasty Piece Of Work (4:34)
9. Solitaire (4:35)
10. One Man’s Meat (4:38)
