Deep Purple
Stormbringer
Stormbringer — Deep Purple, 1974
Released in the UK on 8 November 1974, Stormbringer was Deep Purple's ninth studio album. A contemporary hostile review in Rolling Stone (30 January 1975), chart results from the US, UK and Germany, and how the album's reputation changed.
The verdict at the time
Alan Niester of Rolling Stone wrote on 30 January 1975 that Deep Purple's new direction was 'only partly successful', that 'Holy Man' and 'Gypsy' 'hardly rate above the commonplace', and that Stormbringer was 'a far cry from the band's peak'.
Chart peaks
European positions are listed by country. Later chart entries are labelled separately.
Sources & context
One critic's opinion, summarised from the original Rolling Stone review of 30 January 1975: 'only partly successful', 'a far cry from the band's peak'. Originally dismissed, Stormbringer is now regarded as a classic of Deep Purple's 1970s hard-rock era; 'Soldier of Fortune' became one of its best-known songs (Classic Rock via Louder, 2022).
