Artist Page: Rainbow

A great live DVD with improvisations on virtually every track. Fresh out of Austrian prison, Blackmore is full of energy and frustration which he channels into the music and a great live performance. Admittedly, it is a very painful experience to see him totally bash up a Fender Stratocaster at the end of the show.

While less interesting than 'Live in Munich', 'Live at Budokan, Tokyo' is nonetheless a nice live DVD - even though the sound and picture quality are not the best. There are some really nice close-ups of Ritchie Blackmore's fretboard, and the DVD also contains perhaps one of the most hillarious keyboard solos ever. Although this is from Rainbow's AOR era, there still are some interesting improvisations, mainly by Blackmore.

Like "Down to Earth", "Stranger in Us All" is musically located somewhere in between the semi-progressive Dio-era of the 70s and the commercial Rainbow of the 80s. White's vocal talents, knights fantasy- and Rennaissance-inspired lyrics, and the use of Rennaisance instruments here and there certainly make this Rainbow's most progressive effort since the above-mentioned album.

Like most other Rainbow albums, this one contains lots of great stuff for guitar freaks drawing on both the blues and medieval music. Still, it is not as grandiose in feel and epic in scope as the Dio-era albums or "Down to Earth" and "Stranger in US All". Yet, it does contain some great tunes which are reminiscent, musically, of some of the great Rainbow classics, such as "Stranded" and "Fire Dance". Some of the more poppy/commercial songs are also quite good, such as "Desperate Heart".

While not as interesting compositionally as any of the Dio-era albums, "Straight Between the Eyes" contains several leads that showcase, Blackmore's genious, and it worth buying just because of this. "Eyes of Fire" is slightly reminiscent of "Stargazer" and "Gates of Babylon" with its Eastern feel and symphonic keyboard work.

A fine rock album, to be sure, but not as interesting as the Dio-era albums. Still, it contains lots of great stuff for guitar enthusiasts and some great tunes like "I Surrender", "Spotlight Kid", "Freedom Fighter" and "Difficult to Cure".

An interesting album which contains elements of both the previous Dio-era and the following more commercial era. The vocals are really great on this one, I think, and of course there's lot of stuff for guitar enthusiasts.

While, compared to the two following albums, "Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow" is a bit of a lackluster, it does contain some rather good tracks, most notably the vaguely progressive "Man on the silver Mountain",  "Sixteenth Century Greensleves", " Catch the Rainbow" and "Still I'm Sad", along with the more traditional "Self Portrait". What really makes this album worthy, apart from Blackmore's skills, are Dio's vocal talents and trademark fantasy-inspired lyrics  "Temple of the King" which phases in and out between being vert traditionally poppy and progressive, is somewhat of a masterpiece.

Hailed by many as Rainbow's best album, "Rising" is a quite progressive affair containing at least two tracks that qualify as being progressive proper (the 8 minutes plus tracks "Stargazer" and "Light in the Dark") with Dio's intriguing lyrics, Blackmore's unusual scales and unbeatably marsterful guitar-work, eerie keyboard work, and symphonic athmosphere. The other tracks, most notably "Tarot Woman", contain progressive tidbits here and there and "Run with the Wolf", "Starstruck" and "Do you Close your Eyes" are drivien by refreshingly groovy boogie  rhythms.

Recommended for any rock fan.

Dio + Blackmore = greatness