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The album's title relates to an alternative name for the nitrogen narcosis psychological condition capable of affecting deep sea divers. [4] Of the title, bassist Roger Glover said: "I like it because it's got opposites, a duality there, and I'm always fond of that. If you're a scuba diver and you dive down below three atmospheres or 110, 120 feet, something like that, you have excess nitrogen in your blood, and it's called nitrogen narcosis. It's a known danger. And what it does to you, is it makes you really happy, like being drunk. The danger is you're in rapture, you're in a state of pure joy and bliss and at one with the world, and you love being down there and you want to be part of it, so you take your mask off and die." [5]
According to drummer Ian Paice, the title track was created after keyboardist Don Airey was "fiddling around with something, and I said, 'Can we add something that has a sort of Turkish or Middle Eastern flavour to the riff?' I had the idea of what the tempo should be and said, 'Just put in your mind something different from the Western way.' About two minutes later, the other guys wandered into the studio and started picking up on what we were doing. We tried to keep that Eastern way of how the riff keeps coming back in, the regularity of it, for the basis of the tune. Then [singer] Ian [Gillan] wandered in and got fired up about it. We worked on the tune for about a day and recorded it the next day." [6]
The track "Money Talks" sees singer Ian Gillan perform the widest vocal range heard on any Deep Purple recording, with the bridge featuring a double-tracked deep bass vocal and the song's coda featuring a high-pitched scream.
Release and reception
Like Bananas, the album received generally positive reviews from critics and fans. [8] [14] Rapture of the Deep is Deep Purple's first release in Europe on the German label Edel Records, while in the US the record was released by Edel's sub-label Eagle Records.
The album peaked on Billboard 's US Top Independent Albums chart at position No. 43. [15] In the US, the album sold 2500 copies during the first week. In the UK, the album sold 3500 copies during the first week and 1200 copies during the week after. [16] It also made the top 20 in several European charts. The title track "Rapture of the Deep" was released as a promo single in 2005.
The original production was widely compared to that of a vinyl record. A remixed re-release was issued in August 2025. [17]
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