LONG LIVE ROCK & ROLL

I beleive that t was difficult for "Rainbow" to do any better than "Rising". So, in terms of quality, this "Rainbow" album would sit between their first album (which was a poor one IMHHO) and "Rising" which was a great hard-rock album and truely a classic of the genre.

Most of "Long Live Rock 'N' Roll" features standard hard-rock music "Lady Of The Lake", "The Shed", "Sensitive to Light" (very similar to "Lady Double Dealer" from Purple's "Stormbringer") etc. Still, there will be three exceptions.

"Gates" is my favourite track. Fantastic beat, Middle-East influences, somewhat funky but extremely catchy. Ritchie will deliver a splendid solo in the middle. This song is somewhat "Led Zep" oriented ("Kashmir" comes of course to mind, but "Gates" has more upbeat riff). When "Rainbow" writes such a song, they really belong to the great ones.

Same applies for "Kill The King", an incredibly wild hard-rock piece. The beat of "Fireball" combined with the harmonies of "Highway Star". A ...killer, believe me.

The last track of the album is an acoustic ballad. It sounds as if there are some flute and strings involved in here. "Rainbow Eyes" is a very soft, light and gentle track. Totally different of their usual production.

This is an average hard-rock album (five out of ten). I will upgrade to three stars only for "Gates". I'm afraid that to discover the prog side of the band, we'll have to wait for later releases.