RISING

This second album of the famous 1970's hard rock group has a real classic status. I have difficulties to appreciate it much, as there are some elements present here which bother me: Mostly the style of boasting pathos of the musicians, for example the dramatic verse of opener "Tarot Woman" sounds very much the style of later-era Scorpions. If the goal was to create moods of mighty hero riding on the plains with a hunting falcon on his shoulder, I get a visual of a teen eating a Big Mac hamburger instead. Though there are some thoughtful arrangements here and there, the major orientation towards the playing is slightly primitive, based on the "riding rhythm" familiar already from Budgie's "Napoleon Bona Part 1 / Part 2" song. Also the keyboard sounds bugs me, as they don't have any more warm analog tones, but more digital and modern sounds which don't appeal me on this musical context. The best track here for me is the "Stargazer" which has quite powerful and mystical sounding hard chord progressions in it. There are also some faint tracks of blues roots of Deep Purple in songs like "Starstruck". The long track ending the album "Light in The Black" is then really poor, like the short ass-shaker "Do You Close Your Eyes". The long closer's main theme is in my opinion a soundtrack for metal machos doing the hunt of women in the whiskey bar, and the long instrumental sequence bringing the length for the song sounds like a Commodore Amiga shoot 'em up game's progression, having one evident case of a bonus life being gained in middle of the aural mess. Also with all respect, Ronnie wrote all the lyrics to the album, and he clearly was not T.S.Elliot.

Anyway, if you like Ronnie James Dio's stuff or you are a devoted Ritchie Blackmore fan, then this is a quite clearly an album for you, as it is of course recommendable classic for all fans of 70's/80's hard rock music. In my opinion the only relations to prog with this band are just the time when they were active and the longer durations of some songs. Surely they influenced Iron Maiden and all forthcoming power metal groups, but that musical area just isn't my cup of tea. On the other hand, I don't mind people liking that kind of music, as I don't value people on basis of things like what kind of music they like. But if you're an elitist acid folk purist, run for your lives when encountering this album, as the peril of permanent deafness lies nearby.