Music Banter - View Single Post - Trollheart's all-time favourite albums ever (ever!)

Trollheart · 12-18-2013, 07:27 PM

And following on from "Holy diver", could we leave out

Rising --- Rainbow --- 1976

You can say what you like about later incarnations of Rainbow, but for me the golden, classic era of Ritchie Blackmore's spinoff band from Deep Purple was always under the helmship of RJD. And of those albums he made with them (three in all) this is his crowning glory.

That is all.

Oh, you want more, do you? Well consider this: how can an album that has only six tracks --- six! --- be so chock-full of goodness? Not a bad track on this, and it starts off powerfully with a superb and mesmerising keyboard solo from Tony Carey before Dio's voice punches in as "Tarot woman" gets going, and from there on it's just gold all the way. The piece de resistance is, basically, the second side, the last two tracks making up really one story, with the Kashmir-esque (I know I know!) "Stargazer" leading into the breakneck closer, "A light in the black", on which Rainbow show other bands how you present the final flourish and finish with a serious bang!

Then of course there's that legendary, iconic sleeve. Could anything be more representative of heavy metal than a massive fist punching up out of the clouds and grabbing a rainbow? Well maybe, but it's one hell of an image and almost on a par with Floyd's prism I feel. What I love about it too is that the first time you see the image it takes a moment, having drank in the splendour of the rainbow-clutchng fist, before you notice there's a little guy --- a knight I think --- down there in the shadows in the bottom left hand corner, and he's almost like "WTF is THAT???!" Awesomeness on a scale of one to ten? About a million.

Again, like Dio themselves I find Rainbow slid a lot after "Long live rock and roll", and reached close to their creative peak here on this album. Others may contest that, but come on! "Difficult to cure"? "Down to earth"? "Bent out of shape"? Gimme a break!

The quintessential Rainbow album: you don't argue with a mountain-sized fist!

TRACKLISTING

1. Tarot woman
2. Run with the wolf
3. Starstruck
4. Do you close your eyes?
5. Stargazer
6. A light in the black

12-18-2013, 07:27 PM	#33 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	And following on from "Holy diver", could we leave out Rising --- Rainbow --- 1976 You can say what you like about later incarnations of Rainbow, but for me the golden, classic era of Ritchie Blackmore's spinoff band from Deep Purple was always under the helmship of RJD. And of those albums he made with them (three in all) this is his crowning glory. That is all. Oh, you want more, do you? Well consider this: how can an album that has only six tracks --- six! --- be so chock-full of goodness? Not a bad track on this, and it starts off powerfully with a superb and mesmerising keyboard solo from Tony Carey before Dio's voice punches in as "Tarot woman" gets going, and from there on it's just gold all the way. The piece de resistance is, basically, the second side, the last two tracks making up really one story, with the Kashmir-esque (I know I know!) "Stargazer" leading into the breakneck closer, "A light in the black", on which Rainbow show other bands how you present the final flourish and finish with a serious bang! Then of course there's that legendary, iconic sleeve. Could anything be more representative of heavy metal than a massive fist punching up out of the clouds and grabbing a rainbow? Well maybe, but it's one hell of an image and almost on a par with Floyd's prism I feel. What I love about it too is that the first time you see the image it takes a moment, having drank in the splendour of the rainbow-clutchng fist, before you notice there's a little guy --- a knight I think --- down there in the shadows in the bottom left hand corner, and he's almost like "WTF is THAT???!" Awesomeness on a scale of one to ten? About a million. Again, like Dio themselves I find Rainbow slid a lot after "Long live rock and roll", and reached close to their creative peak here on this album. Others may contest that, but come on! "Difficult to cure"? "Down to earth"? "Bent out of shape"? Gimme a break! The quintessential Rainbow album: you don't argue with a mountain-sized fist! TRACKLISTING 1. Tarot woman 2. Run with the wolf 3. Starstruck 4. Do you close your eyes? 5. Stargazer 6. A light in the black __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 01-01-2014 at 05:08 AM. Reason: Forgot the darned video! D'oh!