Perfect Strangers

Description

Eight years after their separation, the unthinkable happens: Jon Lord, Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Paice, Ian Gillan, and Roger Glover reform Deep Purple. What to expect from a reunion of already aged glories, with respective careers that are not very convincing, except for Blackmore (within Rainbow)? This is the question that fans of the classic Deep Purple era can legitimately ask. The sober cover adorned with a very 80s logo further plunges the future listener into doubt. However, it is a very honest album that will be quickly adopted by metalheads around the world. Deep Purple returns to teach a lesson to the cohort of its followers led by Def Leppard and other Iron Maiden. The sound is updated just enough, the mastery is still there, and above all, the five have a joy of playing that is quite contagious; without leading fans to the heights of the past, Deep Purple shows itself capable of injecting a good dose of pleasure, these are indeed warm reunions of old friends lost sight of. "Knocking at Your Back Door," the first track, is an opening as Deep Purple likes: the search for immediate KO with the guitar and keyboards responding to each other and the drums hitting hard, Ian Paice being just as comfortable in his cymbal interlacing and drum rolls. "Perfect Strangers" is also a well-crafted song and "Mean Streak" recalls the best inspirations of the past. Nice album for an unexpected return and an interesting opening of a second part of a career that will not be calmer than the first.