The Battle Rages On...

The Battle Rages On... is the fourteenth studio album by the English rock band Deep Purple, released on 19 July 1993 in Europe. It is the last album recorded with the band's classic Mk II line-up, which reunited for a second time (the first reunion being for 1984's Perfect Strangers).

The Battle Rages On...
Studio album by
Released19 July 1993
RecordedMay 1992 – March 1993[1]
Studio
GenreHard rock
Length50:17
LabelRCA
Producer
Deep Purple chronology
Slaves and Masters
(1990)
The Battle Rages On...
(1993)
Purpendicular
(1996)
Singles from The Battle Rages On...
  1. "Anya"
    Released: 28 June 1993 (EU)[2]
  2. "Time to Kill"
    Released: 1993 (EU)
Ritchie Blackmore chronology
Slaves and Masters
(1990)
The Battle Rages On...
(1993)
Stranger in Us All
(1995)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
Blogcritics(mixed)[4]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal8/10[5]
Rock Hard7.0/10[6]
Metal Hammer (GER)7/7[7]

Joe Lynn Turner was fired from the band during the early sessions, with Mike DiMeo initially chosen as his replacement.[8] At the insistence of Jon Lord, Ian Paice and Roger Glover (as well as the band's management and record company), Ian Gillan eventually returned to the band during late 1992 in place of DiMeo, thus reforming the Mk II line-up. Gillan had to rework much of the material already existing for the album, which had been intended for Turner and/or DiMeo. Ritchie Blackmore allegedly became infuriated by Gillan's re-writes, believing the songs were more melodic in their original versions, and he left the band for the second and final time after a show on 17 November 1993 in Helsinki, Finland. Joe Lynn Turner later quoted Blackmore referring to the album as "The cattle grazes on".[9] American guitarist Joe Satriani joined Deep Purple as a temporary replacement for the remainder of the tour. A handful of working tracks written during The Battle Rages On... sessions would turn up on subsequent solo releases by Turner under different song titles.

Track listing

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All tracks are written by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover, except where noted

No.TitleLength
1."The Battle Rages On" (Blackmore, Gillan, Jon Lord, Ian Paice)5:48
2."Lick It Up"3:50
3."Anya" (Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord)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" (Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord)4:34
9."Solitaire"4:35
10."One Man's Meat"4:38

Personnel

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Deep Purple
Production
  • Produced by Thom Panunzio and Roger Glover
  • Basic tracks produced by Thom Panunzio at Bearsville Studios in upstate New York (engineered by Bill Kennedy, assisted by Mike Reiter)
  • Vocals and overdubs recorded at Red Rooster Studios (engineered by Hans Gemperle) in Tutzing, Germany, and Greg Rike Studios (engineered by Jason Corsaro, assisted by Wally Walton and Darren Schneider) in Orlando, Florida.
  • Mixed by Pat Regan with Roger Glover at Sound on Sound Recording (engineered by Pat Regan, assisted by John Siket, Devin Emke and Peter Beckeman) in New York, and at the Ambient Recording Company (engineered by Pat Regan, assisted by Mark Conese) in Connecticut
  • Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound in New York.

Charts

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Chart (1993) Peak
position
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[10] 9
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[11] 39
Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)[12] 9
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[13] 13
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[14] 5
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[15] 9
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[16] 8
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[17] 7
UK Albums (OCC)[18] 21
US Billboard 200[19] 192

Certifications

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Region Certification Certified units/sales
Japan (RIAJ)[20] Gold 100,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

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  1. ^ Popoff, Martin (2018). The Deep Purple Family, vol 2 (2nd ed.). Wymer Publishing. p. 169. ISBN 978-1-908724-87-8.
  2. ^ Popoff, Martin (2018). The Deep Purple Family, vol 2 (2nd ed.). Wymer Publishing. p. 171. ISBN 978-1-908724-87-8.
  3. ^ "Deep Purple The Battle Rages On... review". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
  4. ^ Bowling, David (21 December 2011). "Music Review: Deep Purple – The Battle Rages On". Blogcritics. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  5. ^ Popoff, Martin (1 August 2007). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 3: The Nineties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. pp. 108–109. ISBN 978-1-894959-62-9.
  6. ^ Breusch, Matthias (August 1993). "Deep Purple – The Battle Rages On". Rock Hard (in German). No. 75. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
  7. ^ "Deep Purple – The Battle Rages On". Metal Hammer (in German). No. 54. August 1993. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
  8. ^ "Mike DiMeo of Riot/The Lizards/Masterplan | Rikki Rampage's WORLD OF ROCK Forum".
  9. ^ Barton, Geoff (9 March 2005). "Welcome Back... Joe Lynn Turner". TeamRock.com. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  10. ^ "Austriancharts.at – Deep Purple – The Battle Rages On..." (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  11. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Deep Purple – The Battle Rages On..." (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  12. ^ Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. p. 166. ISBN 978-951-1-21053-5.
  13. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Deep Purple – The Battle Rages On..." (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  14. ^ Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005 (in Japanese). Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
  15. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Deep Purple – The Battle Rages On...". Hung Medien. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  16. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Deep Purple – The Battle Rages On...". Hung Medien. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  17. ^ "Swisscharts.com – Deep Purple – The Battle Rages On...". Hung Medien. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  18. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  19. ^ "Deep Purple Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  20. ^ "Japanese album certifications – ディープ・パープル – 紫の聖戦" (in Japanese). Recording Industry Association of Japan. Select 1993年11月 on the drop-down menu
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