RISING

It's not even 35 minutes long, an EP by today's standard but what a blast of melody, energy and emotion it is! I think there will be little disagreement among fans that this is Rainbow finest hour (yeah well half hour).

Tarot Woman leaves little room for doubt that Rainbow really means business this time. The debut album had a lot of good hard rock songs and tasty ballads but nothing of this epic proportion. After a nice moog interlude the track sets off for real with a vintage Cozy Powell power drum fill. What follows is an epic swirl of big riffs, thumping rhythms and Dio's ominous voice.

Run With The Wolf and Starstruck are typical Blackmore hard rock: catchy, fast and very lyrical; similar to the debut but with a bigger production and a real drummer here. Do You Close Your Eyes is the seemingly mandatory throwaway track that has to appear on every Dio-fronted album. On to 'side two' then, where two of the best hard rock songs ever are still awaiting us. These tracks will probably also be the most appealing for non-hardrock prog fans that want to check this band out. They are long, sweeping tracks with astounding melodies and a sequence of excellent guitar and keyboard solos. Yes, even I do not have any reservations against the keyboards here, on the contrary.

One warning. If you don't like (or indulge) the artwork you might not like the music neither. It's the exact visual representation of the epic power that you'll find inside the sleeve! 4.5 stars