RISING

To put it bluntly, "Rising" is a really solid album. Ritchie Blackmore's fretboard magic, searing synth solos, Cozy Powell's tight drumming and Ronnie James Dio's hyper-masculine vocals form a careful marriage of neoclassical licks, symphonic orchestration, fantasy lyrical romance and hard rock testosterone. Altogether the album delivers like a long lost Deep Purple Mk II project, though it really stands for itself as something independent. Numbers like "Tarot Woman" and the orchestral epic "Stargazer" particularly stand out as top notch heavy prog, though there really aren't any weak songs on the album. "Do You Close Your Eyes" is more straightforward hard rock than the rest of the album but there's really nothing wrong with it; it only seems weaker due to the high caliber of the album's other five tracks.

One of my personal favourite albums, "Rising" is a short but powerful musical journey that will be a big hit for fans of bands like Deep Purple or Uriah Heep and wouldn't be out of place in any proghead's collection. A classic well worth investigating!