Year Of Metal #025: Rainbow - Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow
While Ritchie Blackmore may not get the same flowers as some of the big names in formative metal and metal-adjacent music - your Iommis, Pages, and Hendrixes - I suppose I’ve always known he was an important figure through sheer virtue of “Smoke On The Water”. Writing ur-hard rock riff is no mean feat, and I’ve enjoyed or admired a couple of Deep Purple albums which I feel have aged surprisingly well. Rainbow, on the other hand, I really knew only for “Since You Been Gone” - a brilliant song for sure, but a precursor to pretty soft hair metal. I expected their debut album to be on similar ground.
Admittedly it’s not an ear splitting record by any means, but I was taken aback by how much heft Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow packs. Opener “Man On The Silver Mountain” is all attack right out of the traps. It’s no secret that vocalist Ronnie James Dio is one of the finest vocalists in the genre’s history, and he’s at the peak of his powers here. He’s got a ton of oomph without ever sounding like he’s straining for the notes.
The rhythm section shines here, too. There’s nothing too complex to Craig Gruber’s bass but it sounds so precise, and gives a ton of cut and thrust to the low end of the track. Complete all that with stabs of organ and the overall slightly fantastical (but not lame-o) nature of the material and you’ve got a belting, strutting start to a record.
The star of the show, though, is the named performer. Blackmore, like a lot of British guitarists of the ‘60s, was a session musician for many years before striking out with his own projects, and it doesn’t half show. Listening to Blackmore tear it up in his solos, riffs, and lead lines emphasises the difference between a genuine virtuoso player and a shredder fucking around and making things needlessly complicated for the sake of it. He shows off where it’s appropriate but his licks are just useful to compliment Dio’s vocals. He curls a long line all the way through standout “Self Portrait”, moving in step with the singing or the bass in turn. When he finally hits the solo, it’s beautifully voiced and melodically in keeping with everything else in the piece. It’s not a case of everyone else downing tools so Ritchie can show off for a bit.
He tears it up even more thoroughly on “Snake Charmer”, bringing in some Eastern scales in keeping with the tune’s theme. He pulls out some technical stuff for the guitar heads - he’s considered a forefather of the shred scene, and he’s not shy about demonstrating his fantastic ability, but there’s nothing empty or wasted about his work.
The record seems to receive somewhat sniffy reviews from modern critics (often directed at the production which I liked for its clarity), but for me, going in with admittedly low expectations, I found a ton to like about this. It’s the sound of dudes who know from hard rock doing their thing - you can’t go too far wrong with that.
