Rainbow.Stranger.In.Us.All.(1995)-EAC-APE-covers.rar

I suppose Ritchie again got bored with the Deep Purple experience following the end of his second appearance with the band in 1993, and he didn't have anything else better to do, so why not kickstart Rainbow again? Well, unsurprisingly, this effort just serves as a good example of why it wasn't a good idea - the sound is basically what one would expect after such a long layoff. In a grand attempt to return to the old Dio-styled version of the band, with appopriately mythical subject matter in the lyrics, it winds up sounding like a pathetic self-parody, mostly because this particular singer he chose here (Dougie White) is by far the worst Rainbow has featured, as he can't really sing with the sort of conviction that the songs need. Not that they deserve it, since there seems to be a terrible lack of melody and excitement to them, and Blackmore has now gotten to the point where, unfortunately, he just sounds like any other metal guitarist out there in his performance. At least, however, Stranger In Us All does have some merits that prevents it from being that bad. For one thing, the production here is awesome, with all the instruments coming through in a perfectly clear, convincing mix, so much so that if you were listening to the album in the store as a test runthrough on headphones, you'd probably find a lot promise in the first few seconds of the songs or so. But only a couple songs deliver on that at all - the passionate "Ariel" comes to life courtesy of a phenomenal mix, with a nice slow build and effective backing vocals from Blackmore's 'partner' Candice Night, and "Silence" is a highly fun and reasonably hard-hitting Queen-like groove addictive enough to be the best song here. And the otherwise mediocre "Black Masquerade" has a really great middle 'medieval' section that perfectly captures the 'masquerade' title. The rest of the songs, though, are a questionable blah. You know Ritchie's in trouble when he has to resort to recycling a song that already appeared on the debut ("Still I'm Sad") as the closing track, and it turns out to be one of the best songs here. We've got pretty parodic lyrics in the dumb "Hunting Humans (Insatiable)", a song that focuses on sex and lust (ooh...), "Stand And Fight" (an incredibly cheesy and clumsy song that features, of all things, harmonica work and a riff and groove that makes me want to sing the Saved By The Bell theme), a runthrough of "Hall Of The Mountain King" that sounds like bland power metal, and three other songs (of which "Wolf To The Moon" is the most boring) with no memorable hooks or interesting features. Sometimes the idea of a comeback album is better left to hypothetical fantasy so everyone can be spared from a boring listen like this one.

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olson (2005-03-14)

Thanks, despite the info that doesn't really excite anyone into wanting to download this CD it's worth it just to have "as much Rainbow as possible" :D
BTW, anyone know if the "Rainbow on Stage" exists in a Remastered version? I had the original version but it was stolen from my car, and when the insurance company & I should replace it it was out of stock...