Deep Purple Release Splat at 58 Years Old: The Heavy Metal Veterans Still Sound Like Nobody Else

[IvoryOttie]

Deep Purple released their twenty-third studio album Splat on June 20 2026, almost 58 years after the band formed in Hertford in 1968. The album marks a continuation of the Steve Morse-to-Simon McBride guitar transition that has been ongoing since 2022, with McBride fully established as the lead guitarist on his second Purple studio recording. Don Airey remains on keyboards, Roger Glover on bass and Ian Paice on drums, with Ian Gillan's extraordinary voice still delivering at an age when most vocalists have long since quietened down or retired.

The album received generally favourable notices from the specialist press. Metal Hammer praised the band's refusal to accommodate modern production trends, describing Splat as sounding like a band recording at their own pace and on their own terms. Classic Rock called it consistent and enjoyable without reaching the heights of their classic material, while noting that at this stage in their career consistency itself is an achievement. The tracks range from hard rock barn-burners to the more nuanced and dynamic passages that have characterised Purple's later albums under the Whoosh and Infinite writing approach.

Deep Purple's longevity is genuinely without parallel in heavy rock. They formed before Led Zeppelin, before Black Sabbath and before many of the bands they directly influenced. Smoke on the Water remains one of the most recognised guitar riffs in history 54 years after its recording. The band members average over 70 years old. That they are still releasing original studio material that reviewers describe as genuinely engaging rather than an exercise in legacy management is an achievement the rock world consistently underestimates.

Datewww.metacritic.com