Deep Purple In Rock is, as its iconic cover suggests, a landmark in rock
music. From its opening moments of mayhem to its final crash into
incoherent noise, it is a fuzzbox fuelled masterpiece with not a single
wasted moment. Its release was also a watershed moment for the band, a
defiant and irrevocable statement that they were going in a different
direction from that followed on their first three albums. It would be
wrong, however, to suggest that the album came from nowhere. Not only
was it one side in a musical debate that had been raging within the
band, but its antecedents can be traced through both Deep Purple's
earlier releases and those of some of the source bands from which the
principal players were drawn. Sculpting In Rock takes up that challenge,
exploring the roots of the album, placing it into its proper context to
consider how it was produced as well as why it was produced. Part
history, part essay, part memoir, the book is essential reading for any
fan of Deep Purple, In Rock or the exciting, uncompromising, genre of
which it is arguably the masterpiece.