1113. Rainbow / Rising. 1976. 5/5

Back in those long-ago days of high school when I was first discovering the so-called dark arts of heavy metal music, the mixture of bands that were sampled during that time ranged from mainstream to hard rock to metal. Players switched bands, which brought about more music to be searched for to listen to. One particular friend had a penchant for the guitaring of Ritchie Blackmore – and why not, he is a legend – and one day brought to school the album Rising by a band called Rainbow. It was not the first material I had heard with Ronnie James Dio on vocals, but it was probably the first time I actually realised just what a powerhouse he was. And in no way was I ready for the change in style of music that came here from what had been Ritchie Blackmore’s forte in Deep Purple. What I found was the start of a new chapter in my love of music.

This has been considered a great album pretty much since its release, a defining album, an album that is influential to so much that followed. All of this is true, but there is always a question over the relative ‘greatness’ of all of the songs on an album, and whether that brings down where the album ranks amongst the greats of any genre or era. That is also true here, as of the six songs that comprise Rising I would consider three to be at the top of the tree, one to be a high standard, and two that are above average but without the qualities of those ranked higher. Thus, the rating of this album for some is a stretch.
The two songs in question for me are “Run with the Wolf” and “Do You Close Your Eyes”. The use of the term ‘filler’ is too harsh for these songs, as aside from the fact that it is difficult to have filler on a six-song album, they both also have their charm. Perhaps the lyrics aren’t what you generally expect from Dio, indeed one could say that they are unexpected given his output from this point on. “Run with the Wolf” does deal with the supernatural and has its flight through this, whereas “Do You Close Your Eyes” falls a bit too close to pop lyrics which is an unexpected left turn considering the opening salvo. Certainly, to me this is the case with “Do You Close Your Eyes”, but was this the Ritchie Blackmore influence, looking for that track that would get radio airplay? Once Dio moved on from Rainbow there was a much great effort to make the band radio friendly, and these are the kinds of lyrics that Joe Lynn Turner was happy to go with in his tenure with the band. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. It’s a jaunty enough track but it just doesn’t have the claws of the other songs that trigger those emotional ties.
“Starstruck” too is an upbeat hard to heavy song, and one that gets the mood moving. The chorus is a crowd pleaser and the overall vibe of the song has always given the middle of the album a kickstart. No doubt there are those out there that rate this as highly as the gold tracks of the album. I don’t think it quite reaches that level but I still enjoy the song.
The other half of this album is pure joy. The album opener “Tarot Woman” is one of my favourite songs of all time, and has everything you could ever want from a high voltage song. The beautiful 90 second opening synth prelude from Tony Carey sets the tone up beautifully, wreaking the emotive beginning into the Ritchie’s guitar and Cozy Powell’s drums and underscored by Jimmy Bain’s bass line, crashing into the powerhouse of the song as Ronnie lets loose with his amazing vocals. It also showcases Ritchie’s amazing soloing on guitar, which here is perfectly supported by the keyboards before Dio’s vocals soar for the concluding verse and chorus, and the song then fades out to Carey’s keyboard solo. Still brilliant all these years later.
Most count “Stargazer” as the star attraction of the album, and while I lean to the opening track in this regard that doesn’t make this any less brilliant. It is again full of everything that makes this incarnation of the band its finest. The opening drum solo from Cozy is just awesome, creating the perfect entrance to Ritchie’s guitar riff to start the song. Dio’s brilliant lyrics that are then perfectly performed in telling the story are superb, and then the middle stanza including Ritchie’s best guitar work again make this a perfect work of art. Then we are treated to the joy of “A Light in the Black”, the fastest song on the album where the band again blend superbly. The joyful solo break in the middle of the song is surrounded by Dio’s hard soaring vocals pushing the song to its limits. It is the perfect way to conclude the album with two eight-minute-plus songs that hold your attention all the way to the end.
The performances here by the three major contributors – Dio, Blackmore and Powell – are extraordinary. That is not to ignore the contribution of either Carey or Bain, but these three went on to record the follow up Long Live Rock 'n' Roll which somewhat amazingly outstrips this album. But their perfection in their art – vocals, guitar and drums – on this album is brilliant. Cozy’s hard-hitting drumming is perfect on these songs, Ritchie’s guitar is a shining light and Ronnie’s vocals both here and on the following album are probably his most pure and electrifying of any other project he was involved in. If only Ritchie had not felt compelled to find commercial success, who knows what this trio could have produced.

Whether or not you consider this one of the great ‘heavy metal’ albums of all time, there is little doubt that the influence of Rising on future generations of musicians and bands is enormous. It showed once and for all that Ritchie Blackmore had more to his repertoire than what he did in Deep Purple, and it rose Ronnie James Dio to a prominence that he never fell from again. “Tarot Woman”, “Stargazer” and “A Light in the Black” set the band and its members on to greater glory. The album and its songs sound as great today as they must have when they were first released. To me, it is a triumph and still a joy to put on at any time.

Best songs: “Tarot Woman”, “Starstruck”, “Stargazer”, “A Light in the Black”.

Rating: “Her love is like a knife, she’ll carve away your life”. 5/5

1112. Anthrax / State of Euphoria. 1988. 4/5

Anthrax’s path over the previous five years had been one where they were on the rise, from the raw opening of their debut album, to the more refined passage of their next two albums. The hiring of Joey Belladonna as lead vocalist after the first album had proved a success, and the piecing together of the quartet of Charlie Benante on drums, Scott Ian and Dan Spitz on guitars and Frank Bello on bass had put together two outstanding thrash metal albums. They had also blown up stages across the US and Europe, supporting some of the biggest bands and losing nothing in comparison.
What sort of changes do you make to a winning formula, especially when you have reached this crux in your career. The band was trending upwards, but what elements do you use going forward? The band had already dabbled in a crossover with the shared love they had with rap and hip hop from their New York roots, producing the single “I’m the Man” which had been well received, and playing the song in concerts with Joey filling in on drums while Charlie, Frank and Scott bounced around the stage singing. Charlie and Scott had also released the Stormtroopers of Death side project album “Speak English or Die” a couple of years earlier with former bandmate Dan Lilker, which was one of the original crossover thrash albums. Both of these releases were aside from the normal Anthrax releases, but it felt as though there were those elements that wanted to filter into the Anthrax core sound as well.
Once the album was completed, and in interviews on the subject since, both Charlie and Scott have spoken about the fact that they feel that the album was ‘unfinished’, that perhaps it was rushed, and not enough time was taken to iron out the kinks and to make it the best album they could. Retrospect is often a powerful tool that has no use in the real world. What you hear on this album is what the band was feeling at the time, and it remains as one of the jewels of the Anthrax catalogue. In many ways it is surprising to Anthrax fans that there are negative things spoken about “State of Euphoria” at all. Why then would the composers of the album feel this way over a release that contains a few of their most memorable performances?

There are few better album opening tracks on an album than “Be All, End All” a song which is a sign of their growing maturity as a band. The opening and closing of the song with the cello is inspirational, and the building throughout is magnificent. Joey’s anthemic delivery of the lyrics is perfect, the emotion and feeling of each line felt by the listener as they were meant to be as a result. Just a terrific song, one that has lasted the test of time. The cover of Trust’s fantastic “Antisocial” is brilliant roof raiser, and still as powerful today as it was when they first played it. It stands out here on this album because it is a different timing and different melody, that it isn’t quite as frantic as the songs around it are, which comes from it being a cover version. And “Finale” is a great closing track, bringing all of the power and aggression that has come before it and compacts into those final few minutes such that the album is completed in style.
The band continues to make statements about events that are occurring around them, and also write songs that come from books and movies that inspire them. “Make Me Laugh” is the band’s put down of televangelism that was prominent at the time, and was the subject of many songs by several bands around this period. “Misery Loves Company” continues Scott Ian’s in particular love affair with Stephen King, with the song based on the novel “Misery”. And “Now It’s Dark” comes from the film ‘Blue Velvet’, based around the character of Frank Booth played so maniacally well by Dennis Hopper.
Despite this, there is something about the songs on State of Euphoria that doesn't always feel as though they gel together, and it is this reason that I think it is a little maligned by the band in comparison to other albums. Why is this the case? Personally, I think the band got a little bit ‘funky’ with their sound on this album. What you end up getting here is an album that is somewhere between their original thrash metal sound, the hip-hop hard-core sound that came with their single “I'm the Man”, and the more mature metal sound that came with the following album. While the thrash elements are still here for all to hear, the subtle change in song structure and the similarity in which some songs follow the same pattern does feel as though it comes back to haunt this album to a degree.
Listening to the album with a critical ear, there is a case to be made that many of the songs are too similar in structure and sound. That may tend to over-simplify the argument, but it is what comes across to me. There is a case to be made that the songs on “State of Euphoria” just roll into one another and share too much time together. I can sing the choruses of a number of the songs over other songs on the album, and it all fits in to place too neatly. Is this a reason why some people find it difficult to get into the album? Perhaps.
But even those songs that could be accused of being similar still have great powerful chanting lines in the best traditions of Anthrax, lines like “Now it’s dark but I can see, don’t you fuckin’ look at me!” (“Now It’s Dark”), and “You know me, and I can be, a very, very vicious critic” (“Misery Loves Company”), and “Invisible could be my name, your excuses are so lame” (“Who Cares Wins”) just to name a few. And this is the main crux of any argument – for me, I love these songs and this album through weight of having grown up with it and listening to it a thousand times or more. And even for me, I sometimes find myself wandering while listening to the album and come back trying to decipher which song I’m listening to.

It’s hard to believe as I think back now that I missed Anthrax during my high school years. There were the couple of music videos that floated around – the one for “Madhouse” from “Spreading the Disease” being the most memorable one – but as for actually coming around and getting into the band, well that just didn’t happen until later on. Indeed, it wasn’t until I walked into Kiama Sight & Sound one day and saw this shiny album cover staring at me from the “A” rack that I finally purchased an Anthrax album, and I haven’t looked back since.
For me, of those first four albums of Joey Belladonna’s first stint in the band, this is the one that I still have confusion over how much I enjoy it. The debut was rough and mottled with its own charms but certainly not of legendary performance. Each of the other three albums to me are perfectly formed, filled to the brim with strong tracks and songs that are still just as brilliant today as they were when those albums were released. And I do love this album. But it is the one I have reservations about that love.
There are the occasional times when this album comes up in discussion, and I really have to consider how I feel about it. I did this recently with two long term friends, both of whom ranked this as the highest echelon of Anthrax’s discography. I was slightly incredulous. To me there are obvious stand outs in Anthrax’s great legacy, and I love this album, but not to the extent that I felt it was perhaps their best. But then I go home, I pull out my CD copy of the album, put it on the stereo, turn it up, and let it crush. And that it when you get this album at its best. Not in the car, not at work, not out and about on your portable music listening device. On the stereo, at home, and let the album do the work it has been designed to do. If I was to sit down and rank their albums, this wouldn’t be in the top four, but the variables are such a fine thing in this instance that ranking doesn’t really mean anything.
Having said all of that, I still love this album and I love the songs on it. That comes partly from having had this album for so many years and from having listened to it so much in those late teenage years when everything becomes a part of your psyche forever.
The hard bottom line for me is that “State of Euphoria” doesn’t quite stack up against those other three giants that the band was able to produce during this first stage of their career, and that’s okay because those are three pretty brilliant albums. But this isn’t that far behind, and anytime I put it on I am still enamoured by its overloaded ferocity and tongue firmly in cheek dark tones. I don’t know how I would react to this album if I was coming into it now, 35 years after it was released. No doubt a lot differently than I did when I did first get the album. Whereas Anthrax has other albums that are immediately lovable and relatable, I think ”State of Euphoria” probably needs a little bit more time to move beyond what could be seen as the similarity of the basic rhythm of songs like “Out of Sight, Out of Mind”, “Make Me Laugh”, “Who Cares Wins” and “Schism” in particular, to find the love that the album deserves.