Label / HNE Recordings Ltd. (Europe), HNECD085
Style / Hard Rock
Country / Hertford, Hertfordshire, England
Time / 65:07
Format / Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size / 481 Mb
Ritchie Blackmore - guitar, producer
Doogie White - lead vocals
Paul Morris - keyboards
Greg Smith - bass, backing vocals
John O’Reilly - drums
The
line-up is completely new, reprising none of Rainbow’s earlier members.
Wisely going for a fresh start, Blackmore got together vocalist Doogie
White, bassist Greg Smith, drummer John O’Reilly and keyboardist Paul
Morris. With them, he revisited his classic blues-inspired hard rock
sound, mixing it with a dose of medieval/mystical 70’s Rainbow. It was
about the best thing he could have done.
Because after some very poor
work from the brilliant guitarist in the 80’s, now he knew what his
strengths were. His strength was not being dramatic or cheesy: his
strength was making honest hard rock with a traditional bluesy flare.
Stranger In Us All does this, and does it well, never really trying to
create something new when it shouldn’t. Thanks to White’s powerful an
distinctive enough voice and Blackmore’s revitalized guitar work, the
album succeeds. White is the best vocalist Rainbow has had since Dio,
not overdoing his work like Turner, or being a bit too cocky like
Bonnet, and is a huge relief, and for the first time since the 70’s, we
can hear the rhythm section playing.
As said, Stranger’s strongest
part are the traditional bluesy hard rock songs, once again empowered by
Blackmore’s strong leads. The likes of Wolf to the Moon and Cold
Hearted Woman can easily measure up to the guitarist’s earlier work, and
remind us he can definitely still do it in 1995. To great surprise,
there are even some successful Dio-era-inspired cuts with a mystical
sense, such as Black Masquerade and Hall of the Mountain King. Stranger
In Us All wraps together what was good about Deep Purple and what was
good about early Rainbow.
Much more isn’t there to say. Stranger In
Us All is as good as it would get, and after earlier continuously fading
hope, Rainbow went out with a kind of bang at last. This was also
Blackmore’s final hard rock endeavour. Shortly after, he would form
Blackmore’s Night with his now-wife Candice Night, a neo-medieval/folk
rock group. He’s still in it today, and it’s probably what he does best
now. For both him and Rainbow, Stranger In Us All was a final hurrah.
(sputnikmusic.com/review/34136/Rainbow-Stranger-In-Us-All/#:~:text=Thanks%20to%20White's%20powerful%20an%20distinctive%20enough,we%20can%20hear%20the%20rhythm%20section%20playing.)
01. Wolf to the Moon (04:17)
02. Cold Hearted Woman (04:30)
03. Hunting Humans (Insatiable) (05:44)
04. Stand and Fight (05:22)
05. Ariel (05:41)
06. Too Late for Tears (04:55)
07. Black Masquerade (05:37)
08. Silence (04:05)
09. Hall of the Mountain King (05:32)
10. Still I'm Sad (05:26)
11. Emotional Crime (Japan bonus track) (03:50)
12. Ariel (radio edit) (04:01)
13. The Temple of the King (live) (06:03)
No comments:
Post a Comment