Rainbow
Stranger In Us All

THE REVIEW

The rainbow of rock is once again painted by Mr. Blackmore, with his latest gift to his loyal fans: "Strangers in Us All", one of the finest masterpieces of rock from the last decade, where Ritchie and his Stratocaster delight the listener with baroque virtuosity and bluesy notes.

The album is perfect from every point of view, the only flaw being the simple rhythmic lines of John O'Reilly who turns out to be quite uninspired as a drummer and the lack of attention to the keyboards which, however, are compensated by the use of MIDI technology applied to the guitar.
Dougie White's performance is excellent (currently engaged with Malmsteen's Rising Force) a worthy successor to Dio and Turner... A guest on the album is the gentle backing voice of Candice Night, Ritchie's wife.

The album opens with Wolf to the Moon, a beautiful track with a typically Blackmore-esque power-epic character; followed by the piece Cold Hearted Woman, a decent number with a hard rock-blues flavor, the third track is the majestic Hunting Humans (Insatiable) that creates an epic atmosphere; next is Stand And Fight, an AOR piece that recalls the 80's Rainbow, in Ariel the man in black expresses his highest compositional expression, a love-metal ballad very romantic and sweetened by Candice Night's gentle voice in the final part; track number 6, Too Late For Tears, also reflects the AOR style of the 80's Rainbow; and here is the most complex piece: Black Masquerade which proves that Rainbow has made the history of power and epic metal with beautiful orchestral parts and solos of acoustic guitar, harpsichord, and electric guitar; then there is Silence, which seems a sort of revisitation of You Fool No One by the Deep Purple.
The penultimate piece is Hall of the Mountain King, the famous classical music piece by Edvard Grieg rearranged in Rainbow style (listening to it, you will understand where this man's imagination can go); the last piece is a remake of a cover by the Yardbirds, Still I'm Sad, made wonderful by the majestic intro and the incisive riff and obviously a stunning solo that only Blackmore can deliver.