The Battle Rages On...

The Battle Rages On...
The Battle Rages On...
Studio album by Deep Purple
Released	19 July 1993
Recorded	May 1992 – March 1993
Studio	Bearsville Studios, Bearsville, New York; Red Rooster Studios, Tutzing, Germany; Greg Rike Studios, Altamonte Springs, Florida;
Genre	Hard rock, Blues rock, Heavy metal;
Length	50:17
Label	RCA
Producer	Thom Panunzio, Roger Glover
Deep Purple chronology
Singles from The Battle Rages On...
	"Anya"; Released: 28 June 1993 (EU); "Time to Kill"; Released: 1993 (EU);
Ritchie Blackmore chronology

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[3]
Blogcritics	(mixed)^[4]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal	8/10^[5]
Rock Hard	7.0/10^[6]
Metal Hammer (GER)	7/7^[7]

The Battle Rages On... is the fourteenth studio album by the English hard rock band Deep Purple, released on July 19, 1993 (Europe). It is the last album recorded with the band's classic Mk II line-up, which reunited for a second time (the first reunion being for 1984's Perfect Strangers).

Joe Lynn Turner was fired from the band during the early sessions, with Mike DiMeo initially chosen as his replacement.^[8] At the insistence of Jon Lord, Ian Paice and Roger Glover (as well as the band's management and record company), Ian Gillan eventually returned to the band during late 1992 in place of DiMeo, thus reforming the Mk II line-up. Gillan had to rework much of the material already existing for the album, which had been intended for Turner and/or DiMeo. Ritchie Blackmore allegedly became infuriated by Gillan's re-writes, believing the songs were more melodic in their original versions, and he left the band for the second and final time after a show on 17 November 1993 in Helsinki, Finland. Joe Lynn Turner later quoted Blackmore referring to the album as "The cattle grazes on".^[9] American guitarist Joe Satriani joined Deep Purple as a temporary replacement for the remainder of the tour. A handful of working tracks written during The Battle Rages On... sessions would turn up on subsequent solo releases by Turner under different song titles.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover, except where noted

No.	Title	Length
1.	"The Battle Rages On" (Blackmore, Gillan, Jon Lord, Ian Paice)	5:48
2.	"Lick It Up"	3:50
3.	"Anya" (Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord)	6:28
4.	"Talk About Love"	4:05
5.	"Time to Kill"	5:44
6.	"Ramshackle Man"	5:32
7.	"A Twist in the Tale"	4:12
8.	"Nasty Piece of Work" (Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord)	4:34
9.	"Solitaire"	4:35
10.	"One Man's Meat"	4:38

Personnel

Deep Purple

Ian Gillan – lead vocals, congas (uncredited)
Ritchie Blackmore – guitar
Roger Glover – bass guitar, backing vocals
Ian Paice – drums
Jon Lord – keyboards, backing vocals

Production

Produced by Thom Panunzio and Roger Glover
Basic tracks produced by Thom Panunzio at Bearsville Studios in upstate New York (engineered by Bill Kennedy, assisted by Mike Reiter)
Vocals and overdubs recorded at Red Rooster Studios (engineered by Hans Gemperle) in Tutzing, Germany, and Greg Rike Studios (engineered by Jason Corsaro, assisted by Wally Walton and Darren Schneider) in Orlando, Florida.
Mixed by Pat Regan with Roger Glover at Sound on Sound Recording (engineered by Pat Regan, assisted by John Siket, Devin Emke and Peter Beckeman) in New York, and at the Ambient Recording Company (engineered by Pat Regan, assisted by Mark Conese) in Connecticut
Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound in New York.

Charts

Chart (1993)	Peak position
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)^[10]	9
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)^[11]	39
Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)^[12]	9
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)^[13]	13
Japanese Albums (Oricon)^[14]	5
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)^[15]	9
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)^[16]	8
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)^[17]	7
UK Albums (OCC)^[18]	21
US Billboard 200^[19]	192