Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan has said new album Splat! returns to the “dynamics, the balance and the fun” of the music the band made in the early 1970s.
The British rock band, formed in 1968, will release their 24th studio album on July 3.
The band has teamed up with renowned producer Bob Ezrin, who has worked with Kiss, Pink Floyd, Lou Reed and Alice Cooper for the new music, described as “the heaviest Deep Purple album in many years”.
Gillan said: “Where we are now with this incarnation of Deep Purple feels very much like a very ‘now’ version of Deep Purple as it was in the 70s.”
He added: “I have to say, now we are very much back in with material that is compatible with Highway Star, Smoke On The Water, Lazy – the dynamics, the balance, and the fun of the music we made from 69 to 73.
“Deep Purple is in a great place right now.”
The band is considered among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock.
Their most famous anthem, Smoke On The Water, was released on their 1972 studio album Machine Head.
The lyrics chronicle the true story of the 1971 fire at Montreux Casino in Montreux, Switzerland, and the track features one of the most famous guitar riffs in music history.
Highway Star and Lazy both feature on the same album.
Deep Purple will embark on a UK tour later this year, kicking off in Newcastle on November 18, with stops in Glasgow, Birmingham and Manchester, before shows at the Eventim Apollo and the Royal Albert Hall in London on November 24 and 25.
