Rising

Rainbow was a 1970/80s band centred around former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. Rising was Rainbow's 2nd album, release in 1976. It is a good heavy rock/metal album, featuring some good playing by Blackmore and some excellent vocals by Ronnie James Dio, who also wrote all of the lyrics.

This album is good but not brilliant. It alternates between boring and interesting, often within a single song. For me Dio's vocals make the album interesting. The best song on the album is Stargazer, an 8.5 minute fantasy/heavy metal epic with phased drum fills and the whole 1970s treatment. However, when I recently played Stargazer to someone they described it as "going on for a bit too long", which is certainly accurate. This is self-indulgent heavy rock at its best!

I'm certainly not planning on buying an more albums by Rainbow. I used to have a 2 tape set comprising Rising and another album. I was never able to get excited about the other album. It was only when I recently discarded the last of my tape collection (since I no longer have a tape deck) that added Rainbow's Rising to my list. I'm glad I bought it... although it certainly isn't one of my favourite albums.