Vinyl Record

Rainbow - Rising

Rainbow - Rising on LP vinyl. A 1976 record available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel, Ireland.

LP · 1976

Available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel.

Buyer notes: 1976 LP, currently available from the Kilmorna Collection vinyl shelf. Pay for pickup in Listowel or ship within Ireland for EUR 5.50.

Rising is Rainbow in 1976, tightening Ritchie Blackmore's post-Deep Purple project into one of the great heavy-rock lineups: Blackmore on guitar, Ronnie James Dio on voice, Cozy Powell on drums, Jimmy Bain on bass and Tony Carey on keyboards. The album is short, six tracks, but it feels carved rather than reduced. Tarot Woman opens with keyboard ceremony before the band drops into hard-rock propulsion; Run With The Wolf, Starstruck and Do You Close Your Eyes keep the first side direct; then Stargazer and A Light In The Black turn the second side into a dramatic suite of fantasy, speed, orchestral scale and near-progressive ambition. The 1976 context matters because heavy metal had not yet fully separated from hard rock, prog grandeur and blues-based riffing. Rising sits at that border. Dio's mythic language and Blackmore's neoclassical instincts helped push hard rock toward the epic metal vocabulary that would become unavoidable later. The record's power comes from balance: theatrical, but not bloated; virtuosic, but still physical; fantastical, but delivered with absolute rhythmic authority.

Rising matters because it crystallized Rainbow's most celebrated early lineup and helped define the bridge between 1970s hard rock and later epic heavy metal. Stargazer alone would secure its place, but the album's concentrated structure makes the whole LP feel unusually decisive.

For collectors, Rising is the Rainbow title to own if the shelf needs one concentrated statement from the Blackmore-Dio period. This catalog identifier identifies a later vinyl edition, but the album's 1976 importance rests on the lineup, the Martin Birch-era production frame and the Stargazer/A Light In The Black second side.

Epic 1970s hard rock with neoclassical guitar, Dio's dramatic vocals, thunderous drums, fantasy imagery, keyboard colour, orchestral reach and proto-metal momentum.

Recommended for: Collectors of Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio's 1970s work; Listeners tracing the move from hard rock into epic heavy metal; Fans of Stargazer and long-form heavy rock drama.

When was Rainbow's Rising released? Rising was released in 1976 as Rainbow's second studio album. Which lineup appears on Rising? The key lineup is Ritchie Blackmore, Ronnie James Dio, Cozy Powell, Jimmy Bain and Tony Carey. Why is Stargazer so important to Rising? Stargazer gives the album its grandest scale, combining Dio's mythic storytelling, Blackmore's heavy riffing and an orchestral sense of drama.