Look no further than the opening track, "Speed King". Then listen to anything else that came out in 1970. This song shows no mercy as it instantly blasts out of the speakers, with a fury, excitement, and sexual drive never before heard in rock music. The whole album is consistently furious (although the band definitely slows it down for much of the rest of the album).

Not to mention, of course, the purely awesome technical skill involved in the playing. In the epic "Child In Time", all the instruments run counterpoint harmonies on incredibly fast minor-scale riffs in the brilliant climax. Ritchie Blackmore, in particular, shines on this record. His guitar playing, although it would improve on subsequent releases, was even then simply awesome. He is my personal favorite guitarist of all time, although many would argue with my opinion. Jon Lord is a fine organist as well, working with Blackmore to incorporate subtle neo-classical elements into the music. Ian Gillan, of course, is the famed singer, although the production on this album makes his voice sound strangely shrill and distorted (this is not a huge problem, it's actually not that bad). Ian Paice, while not a particularly notable drummer, certainly drives the music forward, while also showing some ability to lay down the funky beats as well.

Every song on In Rock is a winner, my favorites being the mid-paced groove "Bloodsucker", the ferocious "Flight of the Rat", and the aforementioned "Child In Time". This, my friends, is where it ALL began...


only [...] people who saying this is the bad one!!!   August 1, 2001
 7 out of 10 found this review helpful

The [...] below doesn't understand the Hard rock/heavy rock what Deep purple made since the last 32 years. Some fans are able to understand this masterpiece Hard rocking album and they are truly Purple fans like us. The whole set on this album is a raw material and raw heavy sound like speed king, child in time, blood sucker , black night. I guess Zeppelin first album was nothing, to compare to this raw Heavy rock Dinosaurus. Most deep purple fans have the same opinion that this album is a giant master piece during Deep purple's career in the early 70's. I personally love this album so much,...if u want to get more info about this Master piece album, check out [...].


Machine Head gets all the attention, but in rock is just as good.   November 27, 2005
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

This must have been a pleasant surprise coming from a band that had been a vannila fudge knock-off until then. It's one of those seminal albums, a step up on the heavy ladder. In Rock, along with Sabbath and Zeppelin, started heavy metal. Gillian's singing is soulful and unique, Ian Paice is a very underrated drummer, and Ritchie Blackmore...well, he's just Ritchie Blackmore, the King of Riffs. Jon Lord has some nice moments, too, but he's completely upstaged by the guitar god in front of him.

Speed King 10/10. This song would probably make my list for top 20 of all time. It's a ludicrously simple idea - take some old Little Richard lyrics, have Gillian scream them over a pounding rock riff. Add in a jazzy Blackmore/Lord solo, too.
Bloodsucker 9/10. Cool riff, but what really carries this song is Ian screaming "OHHHHHHH NO NO NO!!!". The echoey last verse is even funnier.
Child in Time 9/10. Boring at first, but it builds up until Gillian is screaming. When he stops, Blackmore and Lord are happy to unleash a pounding instrumental section, until the boring part comes back in again.
Flight of the Rat 9/10. Another underrated song, with a fairly simple riff. But the fact that they could play a seven minute song that was metal all the way, with out being distracted by jazz or whatever the solo in Speed King was, is great in itself.
Into the Fire 9/10. With a riff that could match Smoke on the Water and Iron Man blow for blow, it's a wonder this wasn't a big hit. Maybe the plodding verses are what the radio stations don't like. It's an anti-drug song, opposite Black Sabbath, who sang about marijuana with glee in Sweet Leaf.
Living Wreck 7/10. It's the weakest song on the album with bad lyrics, a so-so riff, and a chorus that somewhat makes up for it.
Hard Loving Man 8/10. A freight train of a song, its problem is that there's not enough variety in it for a song that long - it gets kinda boring.
One of those albums that it's hard to get tired of listening to.


Far heavier than anything Purple had done before   May 24, 2006
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

In 1968 and 1969, Deep Purple Mark I (Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Paice, Jon Lord, Nicky Semper, Rod Evans) released three albums, on the Tetragrammaton label (a label ran by famous comic Bill Cosby), that is Shades of Deep Purple, The Book of Taliesyn, and their self-entitled album. These albums also had British releases, the first being on Parlophone, the other two on Harvest (although released a few months later after the US releases, for some odd reason). The first two albums consisted of a bunch of covers of other people's songs, including "Hush" and Neil Diamond's "Kentucky Woman". The third album only had one cover, that is Donovan's "Lalena". These albums found the band performing psychedelia, prog rock, pop, and early hard rock, sometimes not always the most convincing, but they still made a lot of excellent material. It was with their third album that they hinted at a new, heavier direction they would be exploring in the new decade like "Bird Has Flown" and "Why Hasn't Rosemary?", but they still tended to be tame in comparison to the Mark II-lineup albums because Ritchie Blackmore was still playing psychedelic and prog rock styles on his guitar. After their third album came out, Nicky Semper and Rod Evans were out of the picture, in comes vocalist Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover. Because Tetragrammaton was going under by this point, the group sought a deal in the US with Warner Brothers (but stayed on Harvest in the UK). They first did an experiment with rock band and orchestra called Concerto For Group and Orchestra, which bewildered a few fans and was criticized for not having very much rock band and orchestra interaction (apparently even less band/orchestra interaction than the Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed, but I hadn't heard Concerto For Group and Orchestra, so I'm just taking their word for those who heard that album).

But then they returned to rock with In Rock, with a change in direction. Even before 1970, Led Zeppelin was riding high, as everyone knows, they already managed to release two albums in 1969. In 1970 comes Black Sabbath's debut album (and later that year, Paranoid). If anyone hadn't noticed by this point (1969/'70), music was getting heavier than ever before and it was these groups that were responsible for the evolution of heavy metal. Deep Purple were obviously wanting to get in the game, and new member Ian Gillan and Roger Glover were obviously made for this new, emerging heavy metal scene. Heavy guitar riffs from Blackmore and heavily fuzzed organ from Lord were now order of the day. Gone are the harpsichords, psychedelic gimmicks, and covers of other people's songs, with a much more raw, unbridled hard rock sound. A pop-oriented song like "Anthem" (which appeared on The Book of Taliesyn) would be something the Mark II lineup would never dream of doing. The band drives home this point right away with "Speed King", with Ian Gillan's wild voice and heavy guitar riffs. In the middle, the band gets jazzy, with some great organ and guitar solos. "Bloodsucker" continues on this same hard rock vein, as is most of the rest of the album. "Child in Time" starts off as a ballad, but then in the middle the band really gets rocking. This song caused some controversy with a San Francisco psychedelic band called It's a Beautiful Day (the band responsible for "White Bird") as Purple partially borrowed for IABD's "Bombay Calling" (but "Child in Time" has vocals while "Bombay Calling" doesn't). That caused It's a Beautiful Day to get back at Deep Purple by recording "Don and Dewey" off their next album, Marrying Maiden (1970) which beared more than a passing resemblance to Purple's "Wring That Neck" from The Book of Taliesyn album (in fact "Don and Dewey" sounds even more similar to "Wring that Neck" than "Child in Time" did "Bombay Calling", the only difference was that "Don and Dewey" featured violin, as it was a trademark of the It's a Beautiful Day sound). For all you hard rock/metal fans, if you had any doubts about Deep Purple with the Mark I lineup, all doubts were obviously thrown out the window with the Mark II lineup and In Rock. This album did not spawn any hits, unlike this lineup's best known song, "Smoke on the Water" off Machine Head. But then it don't matter as long as the music is great. All Deep Purple fans are going to need this album.