02. Rainbow Rising 1976 (Polydor)
Heavy Metal
A rainbow in the shadow of the wizard.
Overview
After the firing of the ex-Elf members from the first album (minus Dio of course) both Dio and Ritchie Blackmore went onto produce what would be seen as the definitive Rainbow album in both sound and style. The album was simply released as just
Rising in the UK, but for the US market it was titled
Blackmore’s Rising (surely feeding Ritchie’s ego here) and the two frontmen of the band, brought in two relatively unknown musicians in Jimmy Bain on bass and Tony Carey on keyboards and the somewhat rather well-known Cozy Powell on drums, who throughout his career would just about work with everybody in the business! Prior to 1976 though, he had worked fairly extensively with the likes of Jeff Beck, Bedlam and on his own solo material and would probably be the best drummer ever to sit on the drum stool for Rainbow! As mentioned on the review of their debut set, Rainbow would effectively be the band that ushered in the long forgotten term ‘Dragon Rock’ which as the name suggests, was music steeped in fantasy and sword & sorcery settings, along with medieval themes, and Rainbow would certainly perfect this sound on
Rising. The band had already given us great examples of this sound on songs such as “Man on the Silver Mountain” “Catch the Rainbow” and “The Temple of the King” all from the debut set, which despite being a largely uneven affair did contain those gems!
Rising would be a tight and focused album in every aspect, as the band purged all filler from the proceedings, and the album sits at a surprisingly short thirty three minutes, and the 'big things in small packages' quote comes to mind here! One of the vital aspects of the
Rising album though, surely must be in the production of Martin Birch, who had co-produced the debut and would be a producer and engineer largely responsible for the development of both hard rock and heavy metal throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He had of course worked prior with all the Deep Purple line-ups, along with bluesy based outfits such as Fleetwood Mac and Wishbone Ash and would later go onto to work with Whitesnake and even then more famously with Iron Maiden on several of their albums.
Rising would certainly be one of the most important albums from the 1970s in terms of grandiose metal designs and all of the musicians on show here are largely responsible for this. Also the album cover really does denote the power of the band and that fist smashing through let’s know that metal is here to stay!
Dio- Vocals
Ritchie Blackmore- Guitar
Jimmy Bain- Bass
Tony Carey- Keyboards
Cozy Powell- Drums
Production- Martin Birch
Album
Tarot Woman- With its distinctive spiralling keyboard introduction and then its pacey rock-out feel, which all then blends in seamlessly with Dio’s powerful lead vocals, “Tarot Woman” would be the type of song that would become synonymous with the classic Rainbow sound.
Run with the Wolf- Sounds like it’s been ripped from the Deep Purple discography, but after about a minute the song sounds like the perfect second track to follow the stunning opening track, again it’s the vocals of Dio and the guitar of Ritchie Blackmore that shine through.
Starstruck- One of the best tracks on the album, which rambles along with its catchy lines and strutting sound, and that now makes three great tracks on the trot!
Do You Close Your Eyes- One of the heaviest tracks on the album without a shadow of a doubt and does an amiable job of finishing the first side of the album, especially with its hooky chorus!
Stargazer- A stunning 8 minute band classic that apparently all just fell into place when the band were putting the song together and features some great work by Ritchie Blackmore on guitar and Tony Carey on keyboards, and this song would be a band staple for many years.
A Light in the Black- The best song on the whole album and is in stark contrast to the previous song, this is a fast kicking outro-track that shoots along for a stunning 8 minutes and the song is basically a guitar lesson from Ritchie Blackmore. When this song finishes, you know that you’ve just heard a classic album of 6 classic tracks and no filler.
Verdict
From the moment you hear the spiralling keyboard intro on “Tarot Woman” the feeling that this is going to be grandiose hits you, as does the pacey guitar and rhythm section on the song, but it’s the vocals of Dio and the plucking guitar sound of Ritchie Blackmore that really set the song alight and sets the tone for the rest of the album. On the second track we have the thumping rhythm section of the band on “Run with the Wolf” where Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar runs from being dominant to subtle with equal aplomb and then the band put out their very best on “Starstruck” and then get even heavier on “Do You Close Your Eyes”. But surely the song that best defines the album, is certainly its showpiece track “”Stargazer” an 8 minute plodding brontosaurus of a track, wrapped up in medieval vibes and lyrics and is probably the song that best typifies the ‘Dragon Rock’ sound of the band. That song is then followed by the butt kicking almost neo-classical metal majesty of “A Light in the Black” the crown on top of the throne as far as the album's concerned. Most reviews of this album constantly heap praise on both Dio and Ritchie Blackmore (for good reason of course) but one of the real strengths of
Rising is quite simply it stellar rhythm section, where Jimmy Bain and the illustrious Cozy Powell really do standout. Strangely enough though, despite Jimmy Bain’s great work on the album, this album would also see Ritchie Blackmore take on even greater dictatorial powers than ever with his bandmates, which of course had previously knocked the Purple ship off even-keel a few years back! He now started his long purge of bass players, who would be constantly sacked over the years for not being able to hack it according to him……Jimmy Bain was one of those that certainly could and should’ve never been ousted from the band in the first place! Then there are the keyboards of Tony Carey which really enhance the album on tracks such as “Tarot Woman” and “A Light in the Black”” where it was seen that keyboards had a large part to play in the development of the heavy metal sound and Tony Carey probably doesn’t get enough credit in this respect.
Rising as an album quite simply combines fantastic guitar playing by Ritchie Blackmore (one of his best ever) a great rhythm section, a muscular vocal display by Dio second to none, with the whole thing then wrapped up in a blanket of powerful and grandiose tracks, that yet still allow the whole album to be propelled along by a host of melodic muscle songs and neo-classical metal guitar lines. In many ways this album shows the transition from melodic hard rock into a true heavy metal listen, with all the trappings that would go on to characterize the metal genre over the next several years. Without doubt
Rising is one of the most important albums ever recorded within the genre.