RISING

"Rising" is probably the Rainbow album that would appeal the most to a prog-oriented audience without being totally unaccessible to your average mainstream rock fan.

It contains some straight on, nonetheless interesting, rockers like "Run With the Wolf", "Starstruck", and the slightly cheesy "Do You Close Your Eyes", which are in many ways typical examples of the hard rock of the time, although tracks performed by such a genious as Ritchie Blackmore will always be unique in some sense.

The tracks that probably appeal to a prog-oriented audience are "Stargazer", "A Light in the Black", and "Tarot Woman" with its interesting synth/keyboard intro and almost Iron Maiden-esque (and remember, Rainbow preceded Maiden by a good handful of years) main riff. "Stargarzer", heralded by many as Rainbow's finest track ever, and possibly Blackmore's best composition of all times, is an epic 8-minutes long symphonic track which evokes an almost otherworldly atmosphere with it's sword-and-sorcery lyrics and eastern scale elements in Blackmore's guitarwork. This track is certainly a milestone in epic symphonic rock, and has been described as a progressive rock composition proper (check out the "Inside Rainbow" review DVD). Progressive or not, it certainly is a masterpiece. "A Light in the Black" is another 8-minutes long epic which, if nothing else, is a display of high energy and musical skill, and certainly worthy of the progressive rock label, too.

"Rising" is among those rock albums that are progressive without being too inaccessible to non-progheads, and straight-on hard rocking without being too banal to prog-heads. This perfect equilibrium in itself makes the album a masterpiece of rock 'n' roll... and what's great is that Rainbow maintained this equilibrium on the next two studio albums (although "Down to Earth" is arguably more commercial than "Rising" and "Long Live Rock 'n' Roll").

Share this RAINBOW review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Time Signature
• Report this review (#145020)
• Buy RAINBOW music online with PA partners
• Show all RAINBOW MP3/Stream
• Go to RAINBOW page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Rising page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for RAINBOW related discussions