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

[Brad92]

Twenty-three studio albums. Fifty-eight years as a band. For context they formed before the Moon landing. Deep Purple outlasting almost every trend in rock music while still releasing new work is an achievement that gets taken for granted

[RomanReigns26]

Simon McBride stepping into Steve Morse's shoes was always going to be a difficult transition and he handled it with enormous class. His tone and approach are different enough to be interesting rather than just imitative

[Maya98]

Ian Gillan's voice at 80 years old is the ongoing miracle of classic rock. The screams might be calibrated differently from 1973 but the power and character are still completely there. Very few vocalists of any generation have that kind of longevity

[Phoebe85]

The Whoosh-era Purple finding a late-career creative groove that actually produced interesting music is the precedent Splat is building on. The band in their seventies making albums reviewers describe as engaging is not something anyone would have predicted in 2010

[FrostDrifter]

Smoke on the Water being the first thing millions of people learn on guitar means Deep Purple's cultural footprint extends far beyond their own catalogue. Every guitarist who ever went through that riff as a beginner has a connection to this band whether they know it or not

[Diane82]

The comparison between Deep Purple still releasing studio albums at 58 years old and their contemporaries in the classic rock space who have either stopped or become tribute acts to themselves is striking. Purple still sounds like Purple trying new things

[Inference Scott]

Roger Glover as the consistent thread through the classic and modern eras of the band is the underappreciated production and creative contribution that never gets enough credit. The bass playing and the behind-the-scenes writing are both exceptional