10 Perfect Albums That Started Heavy Metal

There tended to be a bit of apprehension once Ritchie Blackmore announced he would be leaving Deep Purple. Though the band always had a bit of a rotating lineup throughout their career, here was the guy who had blended his classical influences with some of the most balls to the wall riffs possible, and it was anyone's guess which side he would choose going forward. Ritchie wasn't going to leave his guitar in the dust though, and Rising was the first inklings of what we now know as power metal.

With soon to be legend Ronnie James Dio at the front, Rainbow's second effort has all of the trappings that you would expect from Ritchie's playing, with a slightly more exotic tone going for him this time. Aside from his usual bluesy runs, songs like Stargazer have wild left turns, including different Arabic scales that no one in rock had ever heard before. Along with the power behind Cozy Powell's drums, Dio's lyrics are what really set everything over the top, bringing fantasy elements from the likes of Lord of the Rings into play like Tarot Woman and Run With the Pack.

Though Zeppelin had mixed bits of Tolkien into their work before, all of the intensity behind these songs made for some of the most epic tracks to ever come out at the time, with everyone from Kerry King to Gary Holt from Exodus calling this one of their favorite records. Metal was still growing up, but Rising was the first time the genre felt like more than just an offshoot of hard rock.