The Hall of Judgement: Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers

Rexorcist has requested that this release be submitted into the Hall of Judgement. If you agree with the below change request, vote YES. If you don't, vote NO.

Request: Deep Purple's "Perfect Strangers" album should be added to The Guardians.

This change will see the Heavy Metal genre added to the release.

Member comment: "This is my final Hall submission of the day and for now. I don't want to flood the threads or halls anymore than I already have. BUT! If you're going to play this album, let me first tell you that side B is more metal than side A which is pretty light.

Ben was kind enough to include 22 Deep Purple releases for consideration due to my desire to add In Rock and my optional possibility to defend Perfect Strangers to this catalog here on Metal Academy. Honestly, that was a very nice thing to do. I was more than willing to wait for RYM to get their sticks out of their buts and at least tag In Rock, but that was a very kind gesture. 22 albums in between In Rock and Perfect Strangers must've been some hard work, so I'll honor that decision by submitting Perfect Strangers to the Hall. But most importantly, I feel that a specific quality of this album can raise for an interesting discussion concerning the hard rock heavy metal line.

Having said that, Perfect Strangers was always a maybe, since it really bridges that gap between hard rock and heavy metal on such a blurred line that different metal sites will say different things, and they all have different arguments. The decision on Metallum and Metalstorm's decision to tag and include Perfect Strangers seems to be built on the atmospheric / aural love of the album shown from many metalheads on those websites. So I will detail those opinions the best that I can.

Now Daniel brought up an interesting point before: some of these hard rock and heavy metal hybrids don't feel like metal to him because the types of instruments and tricks used to create the sounds aren't there. I feel that this argument has validity, but metal emerged from hard rock, and there's going to be occasional overlap. Thus, I feel that metal itself can be expressed in a plethora of ways. I now direct you to one of the most unique albums I have ever heard, a sludge / power electronics / powerviolence hybrid called The Lost M.I.T.B. Sessions by Man Is the Bastard. Not that this album has anything to do with that, but let's see where those other websites are coming from.

There are hard rock songs here and there are some heavily metal-infused atmospheres. This tells me that metal websites will include a strong atmosphere and incorporate the heavy inclusion and attitude therein into their catalogue, usually under both hard rock and heavy metal at the same time, differentiating these albums from "proto metal" or plain "hard rock" like Led Zeppelin IV. A wise choice.

I admit, our opener isn't much of a metal song. But then, we reach Under the Gun, which is loaded with guitar moments and droning sounds that sound a little heavier than most songs on In Rock. Most songs. And the title track alone is the perfect hard rock song for total metal fans. I mean, it's darker and harder in both presence and attitude than most hard rock and even some metal albums of its time. And then we reach Gypsy's Kiss. In defense of Gypsy's Kiss, I'm going to paste here a part of a review on Metallum for this album:

"Then, Gypsy's Kiss returns us to the heavy metal realms, speedy and joyful. Can you believe me if I tell you that there are, actually, keyboards' riffs?? If you don't, listen to this song. Jon Lord (and Blackmore, of course) gives us a powerful and speedy riff. And the singing, well, remains a bit groovy, but it is heavy metal, it has the heavy metal riffing, beating and style. A great song."

Yes, this album has a metal riff played on a freakin' organ. And it really does feel pretty metal. In continuation, Wasted Sunsets feels like a heavy metal ballad from the early days of metal ballads. Those play all the time on the rock and metal station at my area, and I'm not talking the glam metal. But IMO, the real star of the metal side of the album is Hungry Daze, incorporating neoclassical metal influences and some very hard heaviness here, bridging an odd line between hard rock and neoclassical metal instead of the norm. I would unquestionably put this in the same playlist with Symphony X.

And I'm stopping right there. I'm not including Not Responsible or Son of Alerik as those two were featured on rereleases instead of the original issue.

I don't really want to call this "hard rock" alone, but I feel like "light metal" would be the most appropriate term, as a band that partook in the next steps of heaviness after Led Zeppelin took the arena production of the 80's and incorporated it into a more metallic sound that soaked the hard rock, heavy metal and blues sides of their catalog on this album. The commentary and reasoning on Metalstorm has a basis, and I won't argue too hard or say these people are "objectively right or wrong" about something. So as long as the opinion stands, I'll attempt to dissect it. The album really does have a metal feel about it, and that not only defines the album, but sets it apart from other Deep Purple albums. On the one hand, I fully understand if you don't want to compare this to Iron Maiden, who aren't really hard rock so I wouldn't compare them. But at the same time, I also understand if you end up feeling that it bridges the gap.

So, is this a hard rock heavy metal hybrid? Or is this a hard rock album for the heavy metal fan? I respect the results either way, as usual."

NOTE: Only members of The Guardians can vote on this judgement. Once 15 votes of Yes or No have been entered, the Hall will make its judgement.