RISING

After the shaky first album Blackmore basically fired everyone except for Dio and rebooted the band with a completely different lineup. Among the new recruits were such talents as the great Cozy Powell and Tony Carey who gives a career highlight performance with his keyboard arrangements.

Rising is a great hard rock album from start to finish with Dio/Blackmore/Powell lineup at its best. Just like in my review of the band's debut album I have a slight dispute concerning this album's highlight. Both Tarot Woman and Stargazer are excellent compositions although I tend to lean towards Tarot Woman since I can't help the excitement I get every time I hear the keyboard intro of Tarot Woman! Stargazer isn't far behind but I feel that this type of mix between classical music, hard rock and eastern flavored influences is done even better on Gates Of Babylon from the follow-up album.

The second part of A Light In The Black is another noteworthy performance from Blackmore and Powell who basically play off each other in the extensive concluding outro. Considering the lengthy in concert jams that the band was know at the time it would have been nice to hear this type of performance even featured here. Instead the album ends after only some 30 minutes and leaves me wanting to hear more.

Rising basically shows how great this band could be. Just as every other of Rainbow's albums there are a few lesser performances but this time the tops are so high that the final release is well worth awarding the seal of excellence from me!

***** star songs: Tarot Woman (6:08) Stargazer (8:27)

**** star songs: Run With The Wolf (3:47) Starstruck (4:04) A Light In The Black (8:11)

*** star songs: Do You Close Your Eyes (2:58)