Although aspects of this album sound a bit dated by today's standards, it's still a classic and one of my preferred Purple albums. Bearing in mine this was released in 1970, a number of tracks still hold firm today and were damn right revolutionary then.

'Speed King' opens the disc with its highly distorted guitar work, which leads into a slow keyboard piece, and in turn blasts into Gillan's chorus, an all-round well performed song. 'Bloodsucker' is more of a darker, plodding number, with a nice early groove. My pick of the album is one of my all time favourites songs 'Child in Time', this 10 minute epic is worth every second. What makes it so good you ask?. Well mainly Blackmore's momentous guitar work coupled with soaring vocals from Ian, that take you on a intense roller coaster ride up and down the scales- pure skill and genius!. The rest of the tracks chug nicely but do come across a bit tiresome as most feature long instrumental breaks.

If you like 70's Hard Rock you shouldn't be without a copy of this early classic.