Band:	Rainbow
Album:	Stranger In Us All
Style:	Hard rock, Heavy metal
Release date:	August 21, 1995
Guest review by:	AndMetalForAll

01. Wolf To The Moon
02. Cold Hearted Woman
03. Hunting Humans (Insatiable)
04. Stand And Fight
05. Ariel
06. Too Late For Tears
07. Black Masquerade
08. Silence
09. Hall Of The Mountain King
10. Still I'm Sad
11. Emotional Crime [Japanese bonus]

Stranger In Us All is the last Rainbow album after a 12-year hiatus. Ritchie Blackmore surprises every fan in a comeback album with a completely different lineup. For most of the fans of Rainbow this album is the worst in the band's discography because it didn't have any of the Rainbow features or any of the instrumental masterpieces that Blackmore was so known for.

Actually I disagree with most of the Rainbow fans, this is the last good album that Blackmore composed before declining in the music business with the creation of Blackmore's Night. Stranger In Us All is filled with great compositions and every member performs at a high level level. (I was quite surprised with Doogie White in my opinion he was better than Joe Lynn Turner in Bent Out Of Shape, Joe Lynn's voice was getting a bit "rusty" and quite annoying with no new features. I never was a big fan of Joe Lynn, in my opinion he always was an average singer, a bit overrated.) Great drum parts, John O'Reilly had a great performance with a good understanding with all the members of the band. Paul Morris was great, not on the Jon Lord or Don Airey level but quite good; on the tour they made through Europe he showed his quality, good performance. Greg made a good bass performance, he set the pace to a fast paced album, good style, a bit different from Rainbow but still quite good. Ritchie didn't have the amazing performance he usually had in the 70's and 80's but it was still a very good performance with no flaws, amazing style in the tour... a master never forgets.

Lyrically, the album was much more the image of the old Rainbow; in the the 80's the band composed songs with a love theme and forgot the rock part. In this album that doesn't happen: the theme songs are quite diverse, and the songs that are more love related have a lot of rock, filled with good riffs and guitar solos. Technically, like I said above the band performed in a good level. Most of the tracks are fast with a lot of rock features like melody, fast-paced songs and great instrumental parts. The album is great to be played live, Rainbow made a big tour when they released Stranger In Us All, John O'Reilly was replaced by Chuck Burgi that was the better man in the Bent Out Of Shape and had a great performance in live shows.

In my opinion this album is far from being the worst Rainbow album, I think Bent Out Of Shape was a flop, it wasn't bad but it didn't have the level of the other two albums, the 1981 and 1982 releases. In the 1983 record Blackmore was already thinking of the Deep Purple reunion most probably, I think Bent Out Of Shape was a bit uninspired. I would love to see a reunion of Rainbow with Blackmore, I would love to see Blackmore return to his roots... rock, forget the folk rock and Blackmore's Night and make a solid comeback... and if that comeback could be as good or better than Stranger in Us All it would be something very very good. This album is definitely the most underrated album of Rainbow!