Deep Purple Now What?! 2LP (Violet Vinyl)

Now What?! is the 19th studio album from legendary rock band Deep Purple, originally released in 2013 and produced by Bob Ezrin. It was the band's first studio album in over seven years as Deep Purple's previous studio album, Rapture of the Deep, was released in late 2005.

The songs "Uncommon Man" and "Above and Beyond," which includes the lyrics "Souls having touched are forever entwined," are dedicated to founding member Jon Lord who died in July 2012.

Featuring a near-classic lineup of vocalist Ian Gillan, guitarist Steve Morse, bassist Roger Glover, drummer Ian Paice, and keyboardist Don Airey, one can only marvel at how timeless it sounds, as if it were actually recorded in the early '70s and not tracked a little more than a decade into the 21st century. Now What?! sounds exactly like Deep Purple in the band's prime, moving from swirling, massive soundscapes to tight, riff-laden sections and back again with a swaggering confidence that is really pretty amazing, particularly given the senior-citizen ages of the band's members. The opener, 'A Simple Song,' is vintage Deep Purple, while 'Weirdistan' and 'Hell to Pay' simply rock by anyone's definition of the term, while the closing track, the massive, powerful, and just slightly eerie 'Vincent Price,' seems like a prog rock metal opera scaled down to single-track size. Now What?! shows a band that still knows what to do, and that the album doesn't cater to the current studio tricks and processes only makes it feel and sound even more like it comes from the golden age of British prog metal.