Search - Rainbow :: Bent Out of Shape

Instantly became my favorite CD with either Blackmore or Tur

PROBLEM CHILD | Henderson, NV | 09/19/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It stays intense, song after song, but not by relying on sheer guitar power so much like you find with, say, Rainbow's previous Straight Between the Eyes album. Turner can't really scream it out as much as other vocalists Blackmore has recorded with, so Turner's screaming it out on some places in SBTE was pushing it a bit. The vocals and adjusted heavier sound there may have come as overcompensation for the distinctly pop-sounding "Difficult To Cure" album before it. But here, the vocals and intrumentals finally come together beautifully, and for the whole disk, not just a song or two. The creative use of keyboards rounds out the music really nicely and doesn't date it - no more than it dates Deep Purple's "Perfect Strangers" - as overuse of keyboards has often done with music from the 80s (hence the term "80s Butt Rock"?!).

Not only is this much too intense to be written off as pop (and too awesome to be "written off" as anything) you get all the great style and influence that you've come to expect with Ritchie Blackmore and the great musicians he has worked with over the years. I usually go after staight forward hard rock and roll (AC/DC, VAN HALEN, UFO, etc.). While some might say this disk may have a "softer" approach in some ways, it definitely isn't missing anything for pace or intensity, and each song brings something new to the table: VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for anyone with even just a casual interest in Deep Purple, Rainbow, or Joe Lynn Turner."