Band:	Deep Purple
Album:	NOW What?!
Style:	Hard rock, Heavy metal
Release date:	April 2013

01. A Simple Song
02. Weirdistan
03. Out Of Hand
04. Hell To Pay
05. Body Line
06. Above And Beyond
07. Blood From A Stone
08. Uncommon Man
09. Après Vous
10. All The Time In The World
11. Vincent Price
12. It'll Be Me [Jerry Lee Lewis cover] [bonus]
13. First Sign of Madness [German bonus]

The new album from these legendary masters of hard rock/heavy metal is released eight years after their last album. Personally, I was expecting a disappointing album with no flame or passion. Fortunately, the album exceeded my expectations! Although it isn't a classic album NOW What?! is able to present great technical moments with very "rocky" tracks, and an awesome collaboration between Steve Morse and Don Airey.

I have been a huge fan of this group for several years now, and it's always with great pleasure I listen to one of their new releases, even without Ritchie Blackmore. The album starts with the powerful and meaningful "A Simple Song" with an emotional intro, two minutes in length; quickly the song advances to a more heavy and angry musical direction. "Weirdistan" and "Out Of Hand" are one of the most heavy tracks of this album with the spotlight going to Steve Morse's guitar, Paice's drums and Gillan's voice. According to a press-release from the band, this album would be recorded with no boundaries, with a fresh and modern musical production and would have the "elegance of Perfect Strangers and the freedom of Made In Japan". Such a sentence seems to me a bit exaggerated and far-fetched, but nonetheless, the track "Hell To Pay" shows the technical quality, freedom and elegance mentioned above with Steve Morse and Don Airey leading an instrumental battle that hasn't been seen since the awesome times of the "master of masters" Ritchie Blackmore and the legendary Jon Lord.

Its production is most probably one of the band's best since Purpendicular, not letting go of the magical keyboards of Don Airey, the fast and enthusiastic riffs and solos of Steve Morse, the smart bass compositions of Roger Glover, the energy of Ian Paice and the iconic "screams" of Ian Gillan. The group performance is very good and it shows that the band enjoys playing together. Pay attention to the powerful "A Simple Song", the creative "Weirdistan", the heavy "Out Of Hand", the spectacular "Hell to Pay" and the strangely obscure "Vincent Price".

Don't get me wrong, this record isn't at the level of classics such as Deep Purple, In Rock, Machine Head, Burn or Perfect Strangers, among others. It doesn't have the instrumental magic and spirit of old times, not even close to it. It lacks the magic of the "master of masters" Ritchie Blackmore and the perfection of Jon Lord, but it is still a good album and it's at the level of the first album of this mark Purpendicular and is clearly a step forward when compared to their 2005 album entitled Rapture Of The Deep. It's a good addition to the collection of any fan.