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**Rainbow - Rising**
★★★★★

There's a moment on "Stargazer" – roughly six minutes into Rainbow's towering eight-minute opus – where Ritchie Blackmore's guitar suddenly cuts through the orchestral bombast like lightning splitting a cathedral. It's the sound of heavy metal discovering its own mythology, and it remains one of the most spine-tingling moments in the genre's canon. That this track sits at the heart of *Rising*, Rainbow's magnificent 1976 statement of intent, tells you everything about an album that doesn't so much rock as it does levitate.

The story begins, naturally, with destruction. When Blackmore torched his bridges with Deep Purple in 1975, rock's most enigmatic guitar wizard was entering his imperial phase. His first Rainbow album had been a promising but uneven affair, hampered by Ronnie James Dio's still-developing songwriting and a rhythm section that couldn't quite match the frontman's grandiose visions. But by 1976, something alchemical was brewing. Blackmore had discovered in Dio not just a powerful voice, but a kindred spirit obsessed with medieval imagery and mystical themes. More crucially, he'd recruited bassist Jimmy Bain and drummer Cozy Powell, creating a rhythm section with the requisite thunder to support their increasingly ambitious compositions.

Recorded at Musicland Studios in Munich – the same hallowed halls where Led Zeppelin crafted *Physical Graffiti* – *Rising* sounds like it was forged in some ancient foundry rather than a modern recording facility. Producer Martin Birch, fresh from his work with Purple, captures a band operating at the absolute peak of their powers. The Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the venerable Eberhard Schoener, adds layers of baroque grandeur that transform these songs from mere heavy rock into something approaching high art.

The album opens with "Tarot Woman," a mid-tempo prowler that immediately establishes the record's occult preoccupations. Dio's vocals soar over Blackmore's serpentine riffing, while Powell's drums hit with the force of Thor's hammer. But it's merely the appetizer for what follows. "Run With the Wolf" gallops along with primal intensity, Blackmore's guitar work alternating between delicate acoustic passages and full-bore electric assault. The interplay between the two guitarists – yes, Blackmore overdubbed most parts himself – creates a conversation between light and shadow that defines the Rainbow aesthetic.

Then comes "Stargazer," the album's undisputed masterpiece and quite possibly the greatest heavy metal song ever recorded. Built around a hypnotic minor-key progression, it tells the tale of a wizard forcing slaves to build a tower to the stars. Dio's narrative vocals paint vivid pictures of suffering and transcendence, while Blackmore constructs a sonic cathedral around him. The orchestration doesn't feel tacked on but integral, the strings and brass swelling and receding like tides. When the song finally erupts into its climactic guitar solo, it feels less like showing off than spiritual release.

"A Light in the Black" closes the album with equal majesty, its eight-minute runtime allowing for maximum dynamic exploration. Powell's drumming is particularly thunderous here, providing the foundation for Blackmore's most emotionally charged playing on the record. The song builds to multiple climaxes, each one more cathartic than the last, before dissolving into ethereal ambience.

What makes *Rising* so enduring is its complete commitment to its own grandiosity. In lesser hands, the medieval imagery and orchestral arrangements might have felt pompous or silly. But Blackmore and Dio invest every note with conviction, creating a fantasy realm that feels utterly believable. This is heavy metal as mythology, rock music as religious experience.

The album's influence cannot be overstated. It essentially invented the template for symphonic metal, inspiring everyone from Iron Maiden to Metallica to Dream Theater. "Stargazer" alone has been covered by dozens of bands, though none have matched the original's combination of power and majesty. More importantly, *Rising* proved that heavy metal could be both crushing and beautiful, brutal and transcendent.

Nearly five decades later, *Rising* remains Rainbow's crowning achievement and one of the essential albums in the heavy metal canon. It captures a moment when rock music still believed in magic – and made believers of us all.