10 Times Rock Bands Drastically Changed Their Sound

10. Deep Purple In Rock - Deep Purple

The Deep Purple that we know and love today has become synonymous with the genesis of heavy metal. Long before Black Sabbath had really started to gain traction, the straight ahead riffs coming from Ritchie Blackmore helped set the stage for what the more metallic side of the rock spectrum could be. Then again, if you saw Purple's beginnings, you were probably thrown for a loop with In Rock.

Up until this point, the work of Blackmore and Jon Lord had been firmly in the jam band scene, alongside acts like Vanilla Fudge. For every decent song like Hush, there were a handful of songs that just amounted to flirting with the more eclectic sides of rock like jazz and classical. Once you heard the opening strain of Speed King thing though, Deep Purple's real face started to rear its head.

Operating like a more professional version of Led Zeppelin, In Rock is a little bit of everything for a rock fan, from making a fierce rocker like Speed King to one of the most operatic performances Ian Gillan has ever pulled off in the middle section of Child In Time. Given that most artists take a big risk when changing it up, songs like these are proof that sometimes searching for different styles does end up paying off in the long run.