Down IV – Part I (informally known as The Purple EP) is the first EP by sludge/southern metal band Down. It was released on September 18, 2012. It is the first album featuring bassist Pat Bruders due to the departure of former bassist Rex Brown in 2011, and the last to feature guitarist Kirk Windstein, who left in 2013.

In January 2012, Philip Anselmo announced that the band have been recording songs in the studio since October 2011. The band plans to release a series of EPs over the next few years. On May 21, 2012, Down performed "Misfortune Teller" for the first time in North Carolina. On July 26, 2012, another new song, "Witchtripper" was made available for streaming. It was made available for purchase on iTunes on July 31, 2012. The band revealed the artwork and title of their first EP to be Down IV Part I – The Purple EP in July 2012.

The band decided to go back to its roots and the style of writing that was most prominent on their debut album. "We're writing it like we did the first one," said Pepper Keenan. "Just get together in the jam room, right in each other's faces. That's how a lot of the classic rock bands worked; jamming it out, Deep Purple-style."

Much of the work was done at Anselmo's barn named "Nosferatu's Lair", where the band recorded their second album, Down II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow. Influences such as Black Sabbath, Trouble and Witchfinder General played a significant role in the writing process, with the EP containing traces of doom metal and southern rock, giving it a dark, raw and ominous feel.

Anselmo described the album as:

"Very stripped down. Nothing flashy. Straight to the point… really just DOWN music. If you liked the first record, the demos… something like that… This record, we're pretty dead straight and honest and on the money as far as making it as simple and direct as possible and I think we did that. . . It has that practice-room vibe to it. We didn't really try and fucking slick it out and anything. We went the more raw route, as far as an approach."

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Wikipedia