Rising

Rising was produced by Martin Birch at Musicland in Munich in February 1976, with Reinhold Mack assisting. The band wrote by jamming. Powell's kit stood in a concrete alcove made by knocking down a storeroom wall, and drums, bass, guitar and some keyboards were tracked in under ten days, mostly in one or two takes, with Dio's vocals last. The label disliked the bass-heavy original mix, so Blackmore and Dio revised it in New York, and that New York Mix was used on all vinyl. The Munich Philharmonic plays on "Stargazer".

It reached number 11 in the United Kingdom, 48 in the United States, 17 in Canada and 12 in Japan. NME's Bob Edmands praised Blackmore as having transcended anything he did with Deep Purple. Martin Popoff called it a near masterpiece of medieval metal, and AllMusic said Blackmore and Dio were at the peak of their creative powers.