Rising (also known as Rainbow Rising) is the second studio album by the British rock band Rainbow, released on 17 May 1976 by Oyster Records. The album features only six tracks, including two epic compositions exceeding eight minutes each on side two. Although the tracks from this album have been performed live rarely, if at all, "Stargazer" is widely regarded as a Rainbow classic and a landmark song in heavy metal music.
Following the release of Rainbow’s debut album, guitarist and bandleader Ritchie Blackmore dismissed all members except vocalist and lyricist Ronnie James Dio. He recruited veteran drummer Cozy Powell, with newcomers Jimmy Bain on bass and Tony Carey on keyboards. The new line-up began rehearsing and touring in late 1975, developing material through extended jam sessions before recording at Musicland Studios in West Germany with producer Martin Birch in February 1976. The recording sessions were swift and energised, capturing the band’s spontaneity and drive.
In June 1976, Rainbow launched a six-month world tour to support Rising. Internal tensions soon surfaced, leading to Bain and Carey’s dismissal at its conclusion.
The album was well received by critics, who praised Blackmore’s guitar work, Dio’s commanding vocals, and the group’s cohesion. Critics noted its heavy and complex music, with some declaring Rainbow to be the successor to Blackmore’s former band, Deep Purple. Commercially, Rising achieved moderate success but fell short of Blackmore’s ambitions in the United States, prompting him to pursue a more accessible sound in later years. Since the 1980s, the album has been recognised as a classic by critics and fans, a pivotal moment in heavy metal and a foundation for many of its sub-genres.
Background
Rainbow’s debut album, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, was released on 4 August 1975 to modest success, reaching No. 30 in the US and No. 11 in the UK. Reviewers praised aspects of the record but often criticised its lack of energy, comparing it with Stormbringer, Deep Purple’s then-most recent album, a work English band leader and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore despised for its funk and soul leanings.
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow featured guest vocals from Blackmore’s girlfriend, Shoshana Feinstein, although their relationship ended abruptly in May 1975. Distraught, Blackmore retreated to his new home in Hollywood, immersing himself in alcohol and parties. With his life increasingly based in California, it was natural for the band to relocate from New York City to Los Angeles to rehearse for their upcoming tour. Management booked a rehearsal space at Pirate Sound Studios in Los Angeles, but Blackmore soon grew dissatisfied with the musicians, members of Ronnie James Dio’s former band Elf, criticising their sound and stage presence. Dio alone earned his full respect, thanks to his vocal power, creativity, and shared interests in classical music, medieval lore, and the occult.
Bassist Craig Gruber was the first to be sacked, quickly replaced by Jimmy Bain of the unsigned Scottish band Harlot, whom Blackmore and Dio had seen performing at The Marquee in London. Soon after Bain's arrival, drummer Gary Driscoll was dismissed and keyboardist Mickey Lee Soule departed voluntarily. Dio, though regretful about the purge of his former bandmates, accepted its necessity and assisted in recruiting replacements. Auditions in Los Angeles took the form of extended jam sessions designed to test stamina and chemistry with Blackmore. The English drummer Cozy Powell, who was the last of many to audition, proved exceptional and was immediately hired. Renowned for his work with the Jeff Beck Group and Bedlam, as well as two UK hit singles, Powell had been considering a career shift to professional motorbike racing in Europe when Blackmore called. Despite clashes, his forceful personality and a similar sense of humour allowed him to coexist with the mercurial guitarist for five years. Several keyboardists were considered, including Eddie Jobson of Curved Air and Roxy Music, but the spot ultimately went to the young American Tony Carey. Bain had discovered him in a nearby studio, and during his audition, Carey impressed everyone by trading note for note with Blackmore, earning an immediate place in the band.
With the lineup complete, Rainbow returned to Pirate Sound to rehearse and write new material. In the same facility, Deep Purple were preparing their US tour with new guitarist Tommy Bolin, forcing the manager to schedule sessions carefully to avoid Blackmore meeting his former bandmates. Visitors included members of Bad Company, as well as Robert Plant and John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, who occasionally joined the jams. Rainbow made their live debut on 10 November 1975 in Montreal, Canada, followed by a 20-date US tour featuring songs from their debut and new compositions "Do You Close Your Eyes", "Stargazer", and "A Light in the Black". On stage, the centrepiece was a vast, 40-foot illuminated rainbow, powered by 3,000 lightbulbs. Although visually striking, it frequently interfered with the guitars and amplifiers, causing disruptions.
Writing, composition and style
Blackmore and Dio began collaborating when Elf supported Deep Purple on the Stormbringer tour. Blackmore found the partnership "refreshing" and natural, as both shared an interest in classical and folk music. Dio could seamlessly weave his vocal melodies and lyrics into Blackmore’s riffs, some of which originated in the guitarist’s live improvisations with Deep Purple. They wrote all the material for Rainbow’s debut, presenting the finished songs to the other Elf members only at the recording stage. The guitarist's original intention for the music of Rainbow was "to carry on and expand upon the essence of Deep Purple – aggressiveness – and at the same time add a kind of medieval feel to it."
For Rainbow’s second album, Blackmore’s mood and listening habits deeply shaped the music. During his California retreat, he immersed himself in classical and medieval works and even learnt cello from his friend Hugh McDowell of the Electric Light Orchestra, an instrument he felt mirrored his lonely, melancholic state. Blackmore was also stung by critics who claimed the debut lacked intensity and set out to prove himself to the press and his former bandmates.
When rehearsals with the new lineup began in September 1975, Blackmore and Dio already had ideas, but unlike the debut, they encouraged the musicians to improvise in extended jam sessions. This freer process birthed the album’s centerpiece, the "Kashmir"-inspired "Stargazer". Originating from a cello riff by Blackmore and expanded with Dio’s vocal melody, the track evolved into a sprawling arrangement featuring Arabic scales and an extended slide guitar solo. Despite the contributions of all the musicians involved, official credit for all the album's songs remained with Blackmore and Dio alone. In December 1975, Rainbow relocated for two weeks to a farmhouse in Fürstenfeldbruck near Munich, West Germany to develop more material. Working with minimal equipment, they relied again on jams sparked by riffs or phrases, while Dio withdrew to craft lyrics. These sessions not only produced the songs for Rising, but also "Kill the King", which Rainbow played as the opener of their live shows in the 1976 tour, and "Long Live Rock ’n’ Roll". Both songs were recorded in the studio for the following album Long Live Rock 'n' Roll of 1978.
Dio penned all the lyrics, indulging his fascination with fantasy and history. "Tarot Woman", at Blackmore’s request, depicts a fortune-teller; "Run with the Wolf" explores werewolf lore; while "Stargazer" and "A Light in the Black" form an epic tale about the downfall of a wizard and the liberation of his slaves in ancient Egypt. More grounded tracks included the love song "Do You Close Your Eyes" and "Starstruck", which depicts a persistent female fan stalking Blackmore.
Rising features no ballads, instead offering fast, heavy tracks, powered by Powell's drumming, Carey's sweeping keyboards, and Dio's "ferocious" vocal delivery. Critics praised Blackmore’s guitar work as some of his finest, noting how successfully he fused classical influences with hard rock in a band that was both dynamic and cohesive. Carey later called this lineup a "hard rock progressive blues band" and reviewers described the sound as spanning hard rock to early heavy metal. Ian Christe in his book Sound of the Beast listed Rainbow among the proto-metal pioneers who shaped the next generation of musicians, while other critics highlight Rising as a blueprint for the power metal subgenre, with its rapid tempos, classical flourishes and mythic themes.
Recording and production
Rainbow continued rehearsing their material at a disused local club, while the facilities chosen to record the new album at Musicland Studios in Munich, West Germany were still unavailable. The studio was owned by the Italian songwriter and musician Giorgio Moroder and Blackmore knew it well, having recorded Stormbringer there with Deep Purple, as well as the first Rainbow album. Four months earlier, Deep Purple had recorded Come Taste the Band in the same studio and in January 1976 Ian Gillan was completing there the recordings of Child in Time with his new band. The studio was located in the first basement of a tall hotel building made of concrete walls, which were very good for acoustics and very easy to adapt to specific needs. In fact, Powell's drum kit was assembled in a special concrete and tile alcove created by tearing down a wall in a storeroom to achieve a more direct and powerful sound. This was done to avoid the muffled drum sound typical of the then-current pop and rock recordings, caused by the rugged walls of other popular studios.
The recording of Rising eventually started in February 1976. The English producer and sound engineer Martin Birch was in charge of the recording sessions, assisted by the German resident engineer at Musicland Reinhold Mack. Birch had been associated with Blackmore since Deep Purple's live album Made in Japan of 1972. According to Carey, Birch worked as the main engineer and acted as mediator between the band members' strong personalities, but the actual producer was Blackmore, who chose the sounds, the cuts and the recordings to keep or discard. Birch preferred to use mostly the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio's new 24-track recorder to engineer the tracks, instead of Musicland's 16-track equipment.
As a result of the extensive preparation, the drums, bass, guitar and some of the keyboards tracks were recorded separately in less than ten days in one or two takes. This fact explains why no alternate or demo versions exist, only the original or rough mixes taken during rehearsals. In contrast with what happened for the recording sessions of the first album, this time Blackmore gave the musicians freedom to improvise intros, fills and solos, a gesture which Bain, Carey and Powell appreciated.
Blackmore and Carey later overdubbed their solos and the rest of the keyboards on the instrumental basic tracks. Carey improvised the keyboard intro for "Tarot Woman" on a Minimoog while in solitude in the studio and, after many hours of attempts to perfect it, the very first spontaneous version was chosen. He recorded also a keyboard intro for "Stargazer", which was discarded in favour of the drum intro that appears on record. Carey also recorded a complete orchestral track for "Stargazer", using a Vako Orchestron keyboard. Dio's vocal performance was the last part to be recorded and took more time than the others, requiring multiple takes to perfect.