RITCHIE BLACKMORE'S RAINBOW

I rarely succeed to find rock music with such convincing fantasy feel as it was Rainbow with Dio! Each of three albums are simply close to perfection to me. This album can offer some really memorable highlights. "Man on the silver mountain" is quite catchy and simplistic but the simplicity makes the perfection in this case. "Catch the rainbow" has got one of the most beautiful guitar solos in hard rock and proves Blackmore to be one of the greatest its masters. "Temple Of The King" is another piece which has everything that a rock classic must have. "Self portrait" always was one of the most forceful songs by "Rainbow" to me - could anybody create a better perspective of going down? :) One of very few drawbacks which makes me give 4 stars is "If you don't like rock'n'roll", it somehow reminds me more of Dio's former band "Elf" and falls out of musical context here. And the instrumental "Still I'm sad" becomes a bit too repetitive at the very end while you expect something which could kill you in a good sense. So here are my 4 stars... 4,5 really. It's the highest kind of fantasy rock.