RISING

Rising is the second full-length studio album by hard rock/ heavy rock act Rainbow. After the success of the debut album Ritchie Blamore´s Rainbow (1975) the rythm section and the keyboardist were replaced with more accomplished musicians and it clearly shows on this album. New drummer Cozy Powell ( MSG, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath...among others) is a great addition to the band and his playing on Rising is extremely powerful and drives the music forward much better than his predecessor did. New bassist Jimmy Bain is also a force to be reckoned with and new keyboardist Tony Carey brings much to the music too. The two mainmen of the band Ritchie Blackmore ( guitars) and Ronnie James Dio ( vocals) show their full potential on this release too and the sum of all these great performances makes for a very special listening experience.

The music is still blues rock based hard rock/ heavy rock but there are far more neo- classical elements in the music on Rising than on Ritchie Blamore´s Rainbow. The biggest difference in addition to the much better songwriting on Rising is the intense performance on the album though. The vocals, the guitars, the keyboards and the rythm section are just excellent. The album is only 33:35 minutes long and only contains six tracks. That half hour packs so much power and joy about playing music that I couldn´t wish for more though. The songs Tarot Woman, Stargazer and the excellent A Light in the Black with its neo-classical twin guitar/ keyboard lead are the most most progressive sounding tracks on the album while the remaining three songs Run With the Wolf, Starstruck and Do You Close Your Eyes are more in the simpler hard rock/ heavy rock vein. All six songs are of high quality though.

The production by Martin Birch ( Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath...etc) is powerful and intense. Just like the performance. Everything seemed to click on this album.

Rising is THE Rainbow album to own if you only had to have one IMO. It´s a seminal hard rock/ heavy rock album of the seventies and its influence on both heavy metal, power metal and ( to a lesser degree) progressive metal is not to be underestimated. A very important album that fully deserves a BIG 4 star rating from me. I find it highly recommendable. A true classic.