It's hard to imagine it was decades ago that Ritchie Blackmore set a generation of guitarists on their collective ass with the original and early incarnations of Deep Purple [ tickets ]. For some purists, it's even been harder to imagine replacing him.

When Steve Morse joined in 1994, the band--vocalist Ian Gillan, bassist Roger Glover, drummer Ian Paice, and keyboardist Don Airey (Black Sabbath, Rainbow)--couldn't have wished for a more accomplished guitarist, short of Blackmore himself. Morse fronted the kitchen-sink fusion group The Dixie Dregs, and enjoyed a healthy solo career before contributing to Purple.

It's his six-string wizardry--which ranges from metallic ("Money Talks" and "Wrong Man"), to bluesy "Don't Let Go," to southern fried Allman-Brothers-style rock ("Back To Back" and "Junkyard Blues"), to languid "Clearly Quite Absurd," to his trademark scale-busting solos ("Before Time Began" and everything else)--that makes "Rapture of the Deep" an impressive rock album.

Or perhaps it should be more clearly stated: classic rock album. "Total Request Live" won't be picking up any of these songs in the near or far future, and Gillan was evidently ready for that fact with the chiding track "MTV" ("Let's not talk about MTV / I don't want to start").

For those who have enjoyed Deep Purple's long-established style of melodic metal, this won't disappoint.