This year marks the semicentennial anniversary of the mighty RAINBOW, the ensemble devised by Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio upon leaving, respectively, DEEP PURPLE and ELF with a prospect of creating medieval metal, and is there a better way to celebrate the band’s birth now than gathering the group’s beginnings into a neat box set? To emerge on March 6th, 2026, “The Temple Of The King: 1975-1976” doesn’t, as its title suggests, try and span the entire initial era of the collective’s existence – Ronnie stayed with the constantly fluctuating line-up for another two releases, a concert and a studio one, but those merely built on what he and Ritchie outlined on their first pair of longplays.
It’s those platters, 1975’s “Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow” and “Rising” from 1976, that are at the core of the forthcoming nine-CD offering, each of these having a dedicated disc, with the further six taken by three live albums, laid down in 1976 in Germany and previously available as a single package only in Japan. Yet most of fans already have all of it on their shelves, which is why a special attention must be paid to the last CD of the set, where rarities are stored: if the rough mixes of “Rising” have been issued on the record’s expanded version, alternative edits of a couple of tracks and rehearsals for the team’s first world tour didn’t seem to have seen the light of day before. Ideal for those who want everything – apart from a different mix of the ensemble’s sophomore longplay that was included in the expanded variant, too – in one place.
The Temple Of The King:
1975-1976
CD 1 – Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow:
1. Man On The Silver Mountain
2. Self Portrait
3. Black Sheep Of The Family
4. Catch The Rainbow
5. Snake Charmer
6. Temple Of The King
7. If You Don’t Like Rock ‘n’ Roll
8. Sixteenth Century Greensleeves
9. Still I’m Sad
CD 2 – Rising:
1. Tarot Woman
2. Run With The Wolf
3. Starstruck
4. Do You Close Your Eyes
5. Stargazer
6. A Light In The Black
CD 3 – Live In Köln 1976 – part 1:
1. Kill The King
2. Mistreated
3. Sixteenth Century Greensleeves
4. Catch The Rainbow
5. Man On The Silver Mountain
CD 4 – Live In Köln 1976 – part 2:
1. Stargazer
2. Still I’m Sad
3. Do You Close Your Eyes
The Temple Of The King:
1975-1976
CD 5 – Live In Düsseldorf 1976 – part 1:
1. Kill The King
2. Mistreated
3. Sixteenth Century Greensleeves
4. Catch The Rainbow
CD 6 – Live In Düsseldorf 1976 – part 2:
1. Man On The Silver MountaIn
2. Stargazer
3. Still I’m Sad
CD 7 – Live In Nurnberg 1976 – part 1:
1. Kill The King
2. Mistreated
3. Sixteenth Century Greensleeves
4. Catch The Rainbow
5. Man On The Silver MountaIn
CD 8 – Live In Nurnberg 1976 – part 2:
1. Stargazer
2. Still I’m Sad
3. Do You Close Your Eyes
CD 9 – Rarities:
1. Getaway (Kill The King) (studio rehearsals for 1976 World Tour)
2. Mistreated (studio rehearsals for 1976 World Tour)
3. Sixteenth Century Greensleeves (studio rehearsals for 1976 World Tour)
4. Catch The Rainbow (studio rehearsals for 1976 World Tour)
5. Temple Of The King (Bolivian mono mix)
6. Man On The Silver Mountain (mono edit)
7. Man On The Silver Mountain (stereo edit)
8. Tarot Woman (rough mix)
9. Run With The Wolf (rough mix)
10. Starstruck (rough mix)
11. Do You Close Your Eyes (rough mix)
12. Stargazer (rough mix)
13. A Light In The Black (rough mix)
14. Stargazer (Pirate Sound tour rehearsal)
15. Starstruck (mono edit)
16. Starstruck (stereo edit)
