Rainbow

From LibertyWiki

Damn, what a turbulant career! Founded in May of 1975, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow had featured, at the end of 9 years, no fewer than 17 musicians other than Blackmore himself. The original conception was; Blackmore (guitar), Ronnie James Dio (vocals), Gary Driscoll (drums), Mickey Lee Soule (keyboards), and Craig Gruber (Bass). Dio was to remain as the longest standing singer of the band, defining their early sound and, as usual, saturating the songs with a mythical quality.

The band followed smilar sounds of the time to begin with, with their heavy, melodic guitar riffs and loud screaming vocals. However, because of the changes in personel, the bands sound changed often and was never consistent for more than a few albums. Dio left becaus his songs weren't making the chart success Blackmore craved (sell-out!!). Graham Bonnet sang for a single album followed by Joe Lynn Turner for several more befor the band split and Ritchie returned to Deep Purple.

The sound is therefore, variant dependent on the singer. The Dio years were very, very heavy metal, infact similar to the band Dio. The Bonnet years were much more radio friendly rock but the songs still retained a metal 'edge'. The Joe Lynn Turner years continued to sound similar yet somehow returned the mythical Dio element to some songs such as Street of Dreams.