RISING

Started as a side project of Ritchie Blackmore to counter his time at Deep Purple, Rainbow was starting to soar new hights as the years went by. The energetic and raw fantasy blues rock music presented at the band's debut, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, was replaced by a polished, operatic and epic hard rock in the band's next release, just a year later, that, by far, surpassed anything Blackmore's older band was doing at the same time. In fact, Deep Purple would enter in its first hiatus one year after Rising's release,

Capturing the peak of the creative powers of Dio and Blackmore, as well as being clearly influenced by the progressive rock scene around them, Rising manages to merge the best of the hard rock / heavy metal both usually played, composed and recorded up untill that point and some progressive rock. There are various points throughout the album that you can actually see that. In songs such as Tarot Woman, Starstruck and Stargazer it becomes evident. This album's impact was so big that, together with Rush's late 70's albums, Rising would later prove to be an enourmous influence on progressive metal bands to come.

Everywhere you look here, the lyrics, the guitars, keys, drums or bass, you canfind nothing but extraordinary musicianship combined with cleaver, new and inventive compositions, but no matter how much I praise those characteristics, Rainbow's Rising manages to be such a powerful album for, most of all, being a short album. The famous all killer, no filler.

In spite of not having any song that is really bad in their classical era, that is untill Long Live Rock & Roll, it is undenyable that, both in Rainbow's debut and in their third album, there ARE weak songs in those albums, what does not happen here. Deciding to have a compact album with only good and powerful showed to be a great decision.

The only flaws I can ever point out here are some mixing issues, being the biggest one Blackmore's downward glisando at the begining of Stargazer, which could be a bit louder.

Grade and Final Thoughts

Rising is a practically perfect rock album. Recorded just before this style of music became unfashionable, it has everything you can possibly imagine a rock album can have and everything is used well or is the right place. It has the excesses without being bloted, it has the virtuosi without being self-indulgent, it has the power without being midless, and etc.

The only conceivable grade the biggest.

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