The Battle Rages On... is the fourteenth studio album by the British hard rock band Deep Purple, released on July 19th, 1993 (Europe). It is the last album recorded with the band's classic Mk II line-up, which reunited for a second time (the first reunion being for 1984's Perfect Strangers). Even though Mike DiMeo was initially chosen as the singer for the album after Joe Lynn Turner was fired, Ian Gillan eventually returned to the band in late 1992 and had to rework much of the material already existing for it, which had been intended for Joe Lynn Turner and DiMeo. After his firing Turner would admit Ritchie Blackmore referred to the album as "The cattle grazes on". Blackmore became infuriated at the non-melodic elements and left the band for good after a show on 17 November of that same year in Helsinki, Finland. American guitarist Joe Satriani joined Deep Purple as a temporary replacement for the remainder of the tour. A handful of working tracks written during The Battle Rages On... sessions would turn up on subsequent solo releases by Turner under different song titles.