Rainbow - Rising - 1976

I really shouldn't have to say anything else besides Ronnie James Dio here. Sure it is Richie Blackmore's Rainbow, but let's face it Dio is the highlight here.

This record is quite beat up and the rip isn't the best quality, but I think it is good enough to give you a taste and perhaps convince you to seek this record out for yourself. Okay you may not need the whole record. It does kind of get bogged down in 70's metal indulgence, which may not be everybody's cup of tea. But if your cup of tea is 70's metal with all sort of fantasy imagery of wizards and wolves and magic then this is a goldmine for you. If you are a youngin' and you don't know if this old fashioned music is for you, I'll compare it to Wolfmother. They are pretty much picking up the torch where bands like this and Black Sabbath left off. So if that is your cup of tea, then this if so for you. It is a classic in that sense.

If you are just casually interested in what all the excitement is over early 70's metal, then just go straight to "Stargazer". In my opinion this song has it all. It's epic. It's dark. It even has the ominous organs. The repeated use of the words "flesh and bone" and lines like "my eyes are bleeding"(ah heavy metal bliss). It has great Dio lyrics with crazy fantasy imagery right from Heavy Metal magazine. And then of course it has Dio. There is a lot about this song that reminds me of Dio's best solo work in the 80's. In my book that is high praise.

Before finishing this post I'd like to talk a little bit about organs and synthesizers and my youth. I remember when Van Halen released 1948 and there was a big uproar amongst fans. Were they selling out. Real rock didn't have synthezisers. Those were computers. There for some reason was a whole stigma attached to having keyboards in hard rock or heavy metal. Of course I was young and didn't know better. I of course loved the keyboards on 1984, but I didn't have the musical knowledge to defend Eddie and his new found experiments with keyboards. Now I'm not going to say 1984 and Eddie's use of a synthesizer made that record hard rock or metal, no. It did tame those songs up some, but the thought that keyboards and synths automatically made the songs less is false. I of course have known this for a long time, but it is the thoughts that were running through my head when I was re-listening to Stargazer the other day. You can't get much harder or more in the realm of straight up metal than this song and I can't imagine it without the organ. See if you agree.

Enjoy!

01 Tarot Woman.mp3
02 Run With The Wolf.mp3
03 Starstruck.mp3
04 Do You Close Your Eyes.mp3
05 Stargazer.mp3
06 A Light In The Black.mp3

Here is the whole thing Rainbow - Rising.zip