Certainly not a “best-of” album..
1
By Gangrenous Khan
I am fairly new to Rainbow, but not so much to Dio, so when I listened to “Stargazer” (quite possibly the most epic rock song of all time) and saw the Master’s face on the album cover, I made an impulse purchase without reviewing any of the songs or band history beforehand. Big mistake.
Here’s why:
Rainbow was built upon a foundation of magic, mysticism, storytelling, fantasy, and Dio’s powerful vocals. All things that came from the mind (and vocal chords) of Dio himself and what made their songs . In the other words Rainbow *was* Dio, even though technically it was Richie Blackmore’s band- as his numerous firings of band members would suggest.
However, somewhere down the line, as the 80’s approached, Richie got a really stupid idea- he wanted to turn Rainbow into a pop rock band. In other words, no more wizards, no more sweeping narratives, no more profound storytelling and introspection. No, songs will now be about crooning about lost girlfriends and crap no one cares about. Dio saw the writing on the wall and he did not like what he was seeing, so he left. He was replaced by several other singers over the years, while technically talented could never come close to what Rainbow had before. And the things they sang about where downright cringeworthy.
Sad to say, the post-Dio era gets a lot of attention on this album, and a lot of songs that should have been on here were left out. Thankfully Apple refunded my purchase.
