[.ca] Ritchie Blackmores Rainbow

awesome debut!:
one of the best rock bands ever assembled and of coarse the best vocalist ever DIO!

ESSENTIAL RITCHIE BLACKMORE: 10 STAR RATING!:
This guy's guiar playing has influenced so many young guitar players out there now, that a statue of him in gold somwhere is long overdue! I've been a Deep Purple nut for so many years, and although albums like, In Rock and Burn, have some of his most amazing playing in them, this 1st Rainbow release is his best guitar work in the sense of melody. His playing on Catch The Rainbow and Temple of The King is just beyond words. I love Jimmy Page, Hendrix, Malmsteen, etc., but this guy invented a guiar sound that no one can match. No one was doing the stuff he was back in 1972 even, when Machine Head came out. You also have Ronnie James Dio delivering some killer vocals on this, what more could you want? 10 STAR BLACKMORE RATING FROM SCRAGGY'S TOMB OF POWER METAL, USA. (ANY MALMSTEEN FANS SHOULD HEAR THE INTERVIEW DISC ON HIS RELEASE, INSPIRATION, TO HEAR HIM CONFIRM WHAT I'VE JUST REVIEWED.)

Catch the First Rainbow:
Rainbow's first album wasn't so good as the next two but there's some good songs that are worth it. Ronnie James Dio in vocals and Ritchie Blackmore in guitar were a good compilation. And of course Jimmy Bain in bass guitar... 1. Man on the Silver Mountain - very good rock song, very good lyrics, still one of Dio's popular live songs. 4.75/5 2. Self Portrait - quite good, but a little bit too bluesy 2.75/5 3. Black Sheep of the Family - this is a cover song, but not speacial one 2.25/5 4. Catch the Rainbow - a beautiful ballad, very touching lyrics! 4.75/5 5. Snake Charmer - just like "Self Portait" but a little bit more blues song 2/5 6. Temple of the King - a very beutiful song, good lyrics and good keyboards! 3.75/5 7. If You Don't Like Rock & Roll - basic rock song 0.5/5 8. Sixteenth Century Greensleeves - good riff, good lyrics! 4.5/5 9. Still I'm Sad - an instumental song, nothing interesting 1.25/5

8 classic tunes... 1 stinker:
The "stinker" is "If You Don't Like Rock 'N' Roll," but the other cuts on the album make up for it... this album still deserves five stars. That aside, this is a classic fantasy metal album (maybe even the first...?) that rocks me to my core. Kicking it off is "Man On The Silver Mountain," which is one of the best songs on the album. It is built off of a signature Ritchie Blackmore guitar riff, and Dio's melody is awesome... it is immediately apparent that this record will be a great rock statement. Dio's melodic, but ferocious roar and dungeons-and-dragons lyrics perfectly match Blackmore's baroque musical stylings. The next song, "Self Portrait," is one of my favorite Rainbow songs. It is a slow, bluesy number with an incredible, soulful guitar solo from Blackmore. "Catch the Rainbow" is the closest this album comes to an epic, at about six-and-a-half minutes. It has obvious influence from Pink Floyd, and this is a good thing! It is a very mellow, psychedelic song. "The Temple of the King" is probably the most mystical song on the album, with really weird but awesome lyrics from Ronnie James Dio. My favorite song is the instrumental "Still I'm Sad," which is a cover of the Yardbirds. I've never heard the Yardbirds' version, but it can't possibly come close to this, because this version blows me away. It is so dreamy and ethereal, but hard-rocking at the same time. Blackmore's soloing is incredible... maybe even his best on the album. Blackmore's playing and Dio's singing are consistently awesome throughout the song, and they save songs like "Snake Charmer" and the Quatermass cover "Black Sheep of the Family," which, based on songwriting alone, would fail in the hands of almost any other band. The other 3 musicians (bass, drums, keys) are fine, but certainly not exceptional. Blackmore and Dio are the real stars of the show. People say this album has a stupid album cover... I completely disagree! I think it is one of the coolest album covers of all time! It tells you a little about what the music will be like... the castle represents the baroque, medieval themes, and the guitar shape represents the awesome hard rock that the music is based on. Rainbow's self-titled album, while not up to the standards of their next two studio efforts "Rising" and "Long Live Rock 'N' Roll," is still one of the best metal releases of the 70's.

4.5 stars - A solid debut:
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (1975.) Rainbow's first album. Circa 1974, Ritchie Blackmore must have been tired of playing in Deep Purple, because after nine albums with them, he finally left. Elf was a blues rock act who opened for Deep Purple in recent years, and Blackmore was really into them. He joined forces with the members of that band, and his new band, Rainbow, was born! With future heavy metal star Ronnie James Dio on lead vocals, Blackmore and company set out to rock the world! Did they succeed with their first album? Read on and see. The first thing I should probably point out is that this album, while a classic rock power album, is a far cry from Rainbow's later material - it's much more bluesy than their later material. This is because this is essentialy "an Elf album with Blackmore." But, what we get is a solid album nonetheless. The opener, Man On The Silver Mountain, is a solid classic hard rocker that would go on to become one of the band's biggest hits, as well as a fan favorite. If You Don't Like Rock 'N' Roll is the most bluesy track on the album, but it's still excellent. Another one of the excellent bluesy tunes here is Black Sheep Of The Family. And, of course, who could forget the gloomy yet melodic stylings of songs like Self Portrait and Catch The Rainbow? These are underrated classic rock masterpieces. The Temple Of The King and Sixteenth Century Greensleeves hint at a medieval sound, something that fascinated Blackmore (and would eventually destroy his career, but I'm not gonna get into that here.) A short but sweet instrumental entitled Still I'm Sad finishes off the album. All in all, a cool album. THE TEXT IN THIS PARAGRAPH REFERS EXCLUSIVELY TO THE WARNER BROS. AMERICAN REISSUE OF THE ALBUM. The record company did a fine job remastering and rereleasing the Black Sabbath catalogue, as did they several other artists. Unfortunately, they didn't really do anything outside of improving the sound quality. You don't get expanded liner notes, interviews, bonus tracks, combined albums, or anything. Oh, well. I still think it's a damn fine album. Even though Blackmore was no longer a part of Deep Purple, this album more than proved that he was still a capable rock artist. This was also the band that would really launch Ronnie James Dio's career - he'd become a big time heavy metal legend in the eighties. If you're a fan of Blackmore or Dio, or just good classic power rock, Rainbow's Dio-era material is some good stuff you simply can't overlook.

• Man on the Silver Mountain
• Self Portrait
• Black Sheep of the Family
• Catch the Rainbow
• Snake Charmer
• Temple of the King
• If You Don't Like Rock 'N' Roll
• Sixteenth Century Greensleeves
• Still I'm Sad