10 Hard Rock Albums Everyone Takes For Granted

When mentioning the genesis of hard rock, Deep Purple occupy a bit of a different space compared to their counterparts. Alongside acts like Sabbath and Zeppelin, Purple's unique approach to instrumentation on albums like In Rock showed the jam factor of hard rock, as they stretched their music into unchartered territory on songs like Speed King. While they would capitalize on their sonic power on Machine Head, they had a little bit of a detour in between on Fireball.

Considering that In Rock was the first record before this, Fireball almost seems like night and day by comparison, as the band use a lot more atypical structures when making their riffs. Whereas the bluesy aspects of their sound is still hear on songs like No No No, you can hear the band getting restless in one sound, looking to go for funk and even some jazzy sections in between the prime single cuts.

Even though Machine Head brought them over the top a year later, this was not the last you'd hear of the funkier side of the band, as records like Burn and Stormbringer show them capitalizing on the foundation they set here. As much as Smoke On the Water may have laid the groundwork for their rise, Fireball is proof enough that there's a lot more sonic colors in Purple's arsenal.