Review | Purpendicular featuring Ian Paice – Banned

Metalville

Originally starting out as a tribute band to Deep Purple, Purpendicular has been developing themselves be a bit more than just that. It is weird that the person that co-founded Deep Purple (drummer Ian Paice) also started out Purpendicular and plays tribute to his own legendary music….

FOURTH ALBUM

‘Banned’ is the fourth album of the group around Paice, singer Robby Thomas Walsh, guitarist Murray Gould, and keyboardist Alessandro Debiaggi. Bass player Mauricio Torchio joined more recently, first as touring member but now also as an official band member. While writing the album in Portugal in 2024 the members got caught by an enormous bushfire, forcing them to relocate and spend a night experiencing what a bushfire can do to a country and its people. That experience drove the band into changing some things. This album is about their ‘hot’ adventure in Portugal that time and the consequences for the local inhabitants. It was already meant to be a concept album, but this concept is certainly more macabre than they ever could imagine.

THE MUSIC

While listening to the nine songs that are all written by the band, Purpendicular never tries to hide their inspiration. The band does sound like Deep Purple although they are not as heavy. Robby Thomas Walsh, who produced the album with Alessandro Debiaggi, does try to sound like Ian Gillan, but to be extremely blunt he is not even fit to tie the shoelaces of the great Ian Gillan. A short time ago the band did some gigs in The Netherlands and the biggest complaint that some attendants had was that Robby was not really cutting it. After hearing this album, I can relate to that. Not that he makes a complete mess of things but to say that he is the star of the show… Not really.

THE VETERAN

No, the star of the show is the veteran drummer, Ian Paice. Even way into his seventies, his energetic playing and his incredible hi-hat and cymbal technique makes it worthwhile having this album. It is Paice who saves ‘Banned’ from being just mediocre. It must be said that the group certainly has good to decent songs on offer, and that the guitar work of Murray Gould is quite attractive as a whole.

PURPENDICULAR FEATURING IAN PAICE – THE CONCLUSION

As the music is certainly not bad at all, Deep Purple fans might find something they like on ‘Banned’. It might be laid back and not extremely hard rocking perhaps, the musicianship of Paice, Gould and the two Italians make ‘Banned’ certainly worth hearing. Especially closer ,,The End’’ is beautiful and even Robby Thomas Walsh does a very acceptable job on this one. But the fact remains that his singing is very mediocre indeed and that is a thing that certainly hurts ‘Banned’.

Release date: 10 October 2025