AllMusic's Alex Henderson gave the album a negative review, saying that "the songwriting is weak and pedestrian, and most of the time, the once-mighty Purple (who were at least 16 years past their prime) sound like a generic Foreigner wannabe". The same concept was expressed in the reviews by journalists Martin Popoff and Joel McIver, who described Slaves and Masters "a bit like a latter-day Rainbow album" and an "extravagant piece of AOR-ness ... incredibly lightweight", respectively.  However, they salvaged a few songs, such as "King of Dreams", "Love Conquers All" and "Fire in the Basement", which "make at least a reasonable effort to match Purple’s catalogue".

A lot of traditional fans described songs such as "Love Conquers All" as cheesy and predictable and would never have expected them from Deep Purple because it's so distant from the early recordings and Jon Lord had never sounded so soft. Others claim the album is an attempt to make Purple into a hair band at the and of the hair band era. Other people even go as far as saying it would have been better if there had been Gillan in the line-up. Somebody sums it up as 1981-1984 Rainbow with a better drummer and a keyboard player.

Jon Lord himself, more than his mates Glover and Paice, has never recognized this record as a Deep Purple album, but in a later interview dated October 1990 claimed he was getting more and more into it the more he was playing it, accepting the fact that Gillan and Blackmore don't like each other very much even if they respect each other.  On the other hand, Turner openly praised his parenthesis with Deep Purple as a dream come true by saying it was "probably the last great Purple album there was (...) It's a great album, (it) stands up to these days, one of the best recorded, best written (...) I can name every title and just go...who can beat that?"
I definitely agree with Turner (and Blackmore, who is satisfied, too) but apparently in 1990 most fans saw it the way Lord did and so it happened that many shows were cancelled on account of scarce ticket sales. I wish I had that crystal ball in the cover to see how all those guys have changed their mind in time and to see that they are regretting and wondering just what they were smoking when they made those claims the year "Slaves and Masters" came out.

The album was produced and mixed by Roger Glover, who already did the same job on Judas Priest's 1977 album "Sin After Sin", and was also the producer for Nazareth, Elf, Rory Gallagher, The Ian Gillan Band, Reflections, Status Quo, David Coverdale, Strapps, Rainbow and many others.
The production and the mixing were done at Greg Rike Productions in Florida and were followed by additional recordings and mixing, concluded by mastering work performed at the Sterling Sound in New York by Greg Calbi.

Lyricwise the band dealt with the following topics here:

-a sleight of hand casanova dumping the girls he seduced;
-a heartbreak;
-a domestic intrusion followed by rape;
-cheating;
-a fatiguing relationship which is almost over;
-a love declaration;
-a man left by a woman asking a fortuneteller for an answer regarding the end of his sorrow;
-heavy petting;
-surrendering to the arms of the alpha male just for one night.

As to the visual side, the back cover is similar to the front cover, in that the crystal ball and the fortune-teller's hands remain, as well as the colours, but while the back one contains the song titles, the front one depicts details inside the ball representing the past and future of the Hard Rock combo:'s career: you can see vinyls, a truck formed from a face where only a human ear is left, a lighthouse, a guitarist, a keyboard, an hourglass, two planets linked during an astral conjunction, the old Deep Purple logo and a few more. Some of these elements are misshaped reminding me of Salvador Dali's "Persistence of Memory", and this is something that almost nobody wrote anything about back then when the reviews and interviews were made in 1990. It was made by artist Thierry Thompson, who displays his operas in a gallery in Carmel-by-the Sea in California.

The songwriting started in 1988 when 4/5 of the band were in Florida and Gillan in the UK; they sent him music that he didn't like defining it 'not inspired' and he worked on very few vocals of the songs (Slow down Sister" and "King of Dreams") by recurring to temporary working titles such as "Woman from Tokyo" and "Black Night" , which appear on the 1989 demotape. In Spring 1989 Gillan was fired by just a call from the USA and in the end of the same year the slot was given to Turner, although the vocal lines were all but ready.

On the musical side, the opener "King of Dreams", accompanied by a pleasant video shot by James Foley at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk ("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0LWL0Vc9p8 "), contains an involving refrain, with the rest of the track being powerful and hypnotic and displaying a great keys solo. A penetrating riff enriched by Turner's adrenalinic fit voice range is the icy on the cake. This composition immediately shows the good balanced production in which a dry slightly echoed snare drum, the guitar licks and the keyboards lines, even when pretty delicate, seem to take the lion's share.
Rapid and heavily dependent on iconic keyboard work, "The Cut Runs Deep" throws into the record some Hard Rock tinted with AOR vocals and completed by a superb solo by shredding maestro Ritchie Blackmore. This is the first song composed by Deep Purple in 1988 during the songwriting process when Gillan was still in the band.
The first time I've listened to "Fire in the Basement" I couldn't believe my ears: the beginning might as well be a inspired by a potentially unreleased track from Iron Maiden's debut album due to the style and sounds chosen for the riff. This lively composition goes straight to the point and at a certain time it alternates Blues with fast thumping bass lines between a refrain and the other.
Another piece founded on feelings of disappointment in a love relationship, "Truth Hurts" is sung like Joe means it and is constantly ensued by poignancy to some extent both in the riffs and in the solo.
The long "Breakfast in Bed" even almost has a Southern Hard Rock taste, a Bad Company vibe in the refrain that promptly gets stuck to the brain stimulating sing-alongs; also, the rhythm shift preceding the bucolic guitar solo occurs in a vigorous manner and proves to be the right way to bring the song to the next level.
Maybe owing to the evidence that the album sounds massively American, Deep Purple decided to balance it with a European flavour by using a double bass in the initial seconds of "Love Conquers All"; the official video (" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd2-1XEJl2Q") matching the respective song indeed shows some naked women playing that instrument in order to emphasize the classic touch behind this ballad, one of the best ones ever produced in the history of Rock. Its refinement and occasional Bryan Adams-like vocals make us realize we are in front of a masterpiece and not a cloying tune at all, as Turner gives his utmost to leave his mark on this song flawless.
If you grab the vinyl version "Fortuneteller" will be at the fourth place, but on all CD versions it occupies the seventh position in the list. Its slow pace and richness in groove are a recipe for successful songwriting, as well as the guitar work and solo are precise, intense and adamantine to the point of delivering eternal freshness to the song, whereas the bass and the keyboard are of course hearable but don't play a protagonist's role.
"Too Much Is Not Enough" - my personal favourite - is so tight and involving and it was a bit of a shock when I first learned it wasn't even composed by the band; as a matter of fact it was recorded by Turner for the unreleased follow up of his first solo album "Rescue You", and it was also recorded by Paul Rodgers' and Kenney Jones's band The Law but they didn't release it, either. Turner's original version can be found on the bootleg Demos '88 - 91' and The Law version on The Law II bootleg. Turner re-recorded the song for his album "Hurry Up and Wai" in 1998.
The duty to end the platter is entrusted with "Wicked Ways", a tough opus urging listeners who are driving to push the gas pedal down until a slacking off arrives; the desire for more speed returns with the final climax. It's no surprise at all the song was regularly played live during the tour in support of the album in 1991. There are also two bonus tracks in the 2012 remastered reissues: "Slow down Sister" and "Love Conquers All" (single edit); also the recording sessions also produced "Fire, Ice & Dynamite" which became a movie soundtrack and "Heart Like A Hurricane" which has never been published so far.

To love Deep Purple is to love this album. It is so underrated. Turner, a really versatile singer, sounds greatly dramatic, melodic, polite and elegant here, I love the experimental direction they took, appreciate their bold approach to music. Rock, Pop, Hard Rock, Classic Rock, Folk Rock, whatever Ritchie Blackmore touches becomes gold. What's not to like "Slaves and Masters"?
Definitely an album not to be forgotten or neglected again.