Deep Purple
Perfect Strangers

THE REVIEW

In March 1976, following the American tour in January, the group unanimously decided on a break period, which, although not an anticipation of a breakup, would become one when both Lord and Coverdale became fully engrossed in their respective solo projects. Meanwhile, Bolin, involved in resuming his solo career, fell into a deep depression that led him to increase his dependency on those dangerous vices he was already prone to in the past, resulting in his death by overdose on December 4, 1976, at the Newport Hotel in Miami.

Despite the official breakup, Deep Purple continued to dominate the charts, just as "Deepest Purple" (1980) reached number one on the UK chart. The explosion of heavy metal was on the horizon. The new heroes of hard sound chose the English band as their guiding spirit for a sound that was both pleasantly aggressive and irresistibly melodic.

We are in 1983, and although the initial signs in Europe had already turned into concrete steps, for the United States, it became the year of the birth of heavy metal. It's the year when it was already possible to suspect a certain heterogeneity in the new sound: from "Kill 'Em All" by Metallica, to "Forged In Fire" by Anvil, not to mention "Metal Health" by Quiet Riot, which would exceed six million copies, reaching the top of the prestigious and conservative Billboard. Certain signals were also perceivable from the sound that found its outlet with Gibson and Marshall as true defenders like Virgin Steele and Manowar, as well as those who sweetened their technical prowess while also winking at a more refined aesthetic aspect like Dokken or Motley Crue.

The recomposition of Mark II happened more due to the managers' will than that of the individual musicians. After all, Blackmore's Rainbow (with Glover in the lineup), after releasing the decent "Bent Out Of Shape" (1983), hadn't met the optimistic expectations of the record company, just as the failed experience of Ian Gillan and Tony Iommi's Black Sabbath. In fact, "Born Again" released in 1983, represented a homecoming to the lands of metal, with Gillan's voice seemingly foreign to certain musical territories and a subsequent tour that would be a real disaster and the ticket out of the group for the former singer of Purple.

In the opening, "Perfect Strangers" presents the most immediately impactful track:"Knocking At Your Back Door", a thrilling riff that reveals solid sounds like those of the past decade for a dissolute and (almost) unrestrained text (Sweet Nancy was so fancy. To get into her pantry Had to be the aristocracy. The members that she toyed with At her city club Were something in diplomacy. So we