Rainbow - Long Live Rock and Roll (1978)

Rainbow's third studio album and the last one with Ronnie James Dio. In retrospect, it's the end of an era: Blackmore, who usually changed almost the whole band lineup between albums anyway, would continue with almost completely new personnel into a much more radio-friendly direction, before eventually disbanding the band in favour of a (quite successful, yet ultimately doomed) reunion of Deep Purple. He would never again release as bold, aggressive and progressive music as he did in the second half of the 70s. What a pity!

Where Rainbow initially not that much liked, and didn't really drew large crowds to their concerts, in retrospect they are one of the defining bands of the emerging heavy-metal genre. Speed, precision, epic lyrics and operatic vocals underlining the classically inspired melodies - Rainbow got it all.

However, compared to their 1976 masterpiece Rising, Long Live Rock and Roll is often seen as the lesser record. I disagree. Rising might been more complex and longer, or more progressive, as one might argue^^ but its successor is just that bit more accessible and compact, has more memorable riffs and - thanks to its more diverse songwriting - feels more engaging. Rising might been a relentless full throttle-trip from start to finish, but Long Live... gives you that little breather from time to time that makes its punches hit you even harder when they come.

And gods, punches it gives. From its cheerfully kickass opening track to the mystical and oriental Gates of Babylon, to the speedmetal powertrip Kill the King, the album has some of the best songs and riffs the band (or Blackmore himself actually) has ever written. Just blisteringly played (and I'm sure some actual blisters were involved), with a vocal performance by Dio, that once again can only be compared to singers like Robert Plant, Rob Halford and Ro... Ian Gillan on top of their game.

It's a shame that this should be the last Rainbow album with Dio's involvement and the band's last straightforward hard-rock album, until 1995's Stranger in Us All. The albums after him were not bad, but too often too streamlined for chart-appeal and too restrained even in their wilder-moments. Luckily for us, Dio stayed true to his style, went straight to Black Sabbath, recorded two stunning albums there, before starting his own project in 1982.

Rainbow - Rising (1976)

Compared to its predecessor Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, Rising cranks it all up to eleven: the sword and sorcery, the heaviness, the complexity and length of the songs, the instrumental performances - it is basically the quintessential record of the Dio-era. Did the first album sound like the band was dipping their toe into a new world of hard guitar-centered music, in Rising they jumped fully into it.

Probably the best example is the epic Stargazer. Everything is larger than life in this song. A miniature-opera about the rise and (quite literal) fall of a wizard who enslaved the people to build him a tower to the stars. The way guitar and vocals are dramatizing the story here works so well and expressive and organic, with both being at the peak of their abilities, that its a pure, uplifting joy listening to.

Might the rest of the album not quite have the same epic dimension, with predominantly fast-paced songs, it is nevertheless spectacular. A good part of this is due to Cozy Powell's dense and varied drumming, which ties the songs together and works as a perfect counterpoint to the stunning performances of the albums main actors, Blackmore and Dio.

I think in hindsight you can see how influential Rising was to 80's metal: The breakneck guitar shredding, the fantasy-centered cover artwork and lyrics, delivered by an almost operatic vocalist and the occasional keyboard flavouring - all these bits became commonplaces in the decade after.
Its just a shame that the band initially wasn't too successful. About five years later, when the world was finally ready for this type of music and bands like Iron Maiden and Manowar filled the venues playing quite similar material, Blackmore had pushed Rainbow into radio-friendly territories instead. Luckily for us, Dio kept on waving the heavy-metal banner high. First with Black Sabbath and later as solo-artist with his own band.
All in all, Rising is definitely a milestone in the evolution of metal and an underrated masterpiece. And even the cover is less eye-watering than the first one!

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (1975)

A lot has been written about Ritchie Blackmore's departure from Deep Purple and the formation of his own project, Rainbow. That he de facto took over the band Elf, which was supporting Deep Purple while touring around that time and had a certain Ronnie James Dio on vocals... So I spare ourselves a more extensive recap. Instead, onwards to the meat and potatoes!

The album begins with Man on the Silver Mountain, which, surely not coincidentally, has some similarities to that one Deep Purple song everyone knows. Just like Smoke on the Water the main riff is played in fourths (quite a trademark of Blackmore and found in a lot of his songs throughout his career) and the song grooves confidently along in the mid-tempo range. Quite radio-friendly actually. But as similar the songs are, Ronnie James Dio's vocal performance adds a more dramatic and operatic vibe to it, than Ian Gillan does. Where Smoke on the Water muses on the very worldly events during the recording of Deep Purple's album Machine Head and even includes their exact location in its lyrics ("We all came out to Montreux..."), Man on the Silver Mountain is more cryptic and evokes mystic imagery and is located very much in fantasy-land. Or Middle Earth.

While there are some more typical rock'n'roll songs as well, namely Black Sheep of the Family and If you don't like Rock and Roll, they appear really as the weaker moments of the album. I often get the impression Blackmore isn't that comfortable playing blues or blues-based material and these songs are showcasing this pretty well. While they are technically flawlessly played, they sound maybe a bit too clinical for their own good. Maybe the band tried to emulate Led Zeppelin here. Not a bad attempt, but they just lack their swagger. And Zeppelin was all swagger really.
(I think Blackmore actually wanted Rainbow to be a mix between Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, so there you go: Deep Zeppelin or Led Purple, take your pick.)

Luckily for the remainder of the album the band is very much speaking its own language and tries not to sound like anyone else. And to the benefit of the songs: the ballads don't try to be folky or something like that, as Zeppelin did before. Instead they take their inspiration from classical music and medieval tunes. After all, Blackmore is more a Bach- and Beethoven guy. Its quite funny to listen to songs like Temple of the King or Catch the Rainbow, realizing that twenty years before forming Blackmore's Night, he pretty much made already the same music!

Where the album really shines however, is in the hard and heavy end of the spectrum. Namely songs like Sixteenth Century Greensleeves and Snake Charmer. Here the epic fantasy can run freely: liberated from the limitations of 12-bar blues and straight into proto power-metal territory with Dio's heroic voice, heavy drumming, fast arpeggios and punchy riffs. Great songs which heritage can still be heard in today's metal.

As it is typical for a rock band of the 70's, especially with such strong lead personalities as Blackmore and Dio are, the rhythm-section - Craig Gruber on bass and Gary Driscoll on drums - stays consistently in the background. They certainly do a good job and give the songs a very naturally flowing feel while at the same time very competently delivering heaviness, but you can sense they are not the most important members of this band. Same applies to Mickey Lee Soule on the keys. At least he gets a bit of spotlight with his rock'n'roll piano in Black Sheep of the Family. But for vastly the largest part this album is very much a guitar-plus-singer album.

All in all, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow is a bit of a mixed bag. It certainly has great moments and historic significance. The two main protagonists Blackmore and Dio can really shine and show off their talents. On the other hand, it feels like the band hasn't fully explored their possibilities yet. Something that would change with their follow-up album Rising.
And yes, the cover is ghastly. As influential their music was, their choice of artwork sadly was so too.