Band leader Ritchie Blackmore retained only singer Ronnie James Dio from the previous album line-up, and recruited drummer Cozy Powell, bassist Jimmy Bain and keyboard player Tony Carey to complete the new roster.

[citation needed] The album showpiece, according to general consensus, is the eight-minute-and-26-second track "Stargazer", features the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, and originally had a keyboard intro as evidenced on the 2011 Deluxe Edition's "Rough Mix" version.

[citation needed] Few of the album tracks made it into the band's live set: "Stargazer" and "Do You Close Your Eyes", written prior to the inaugural US tour in late 1975, featured in all the 1975 and 1976 shows, while "A Light in the Black" was dropped early in the 1976 tour, although it was reintroduced into the set during the Japanese dates.

This limited edition reissue was released in a cardboard gatefold sleeve (mini LP-style paper jacket), featuring the "high-fidelity" SHM-CD manufacturing process (compatible with standard CD players) and was part of a two-album Rainbow cardboard sleeve reissue series featuring Rainbow Rising and Down to Earth.

[8] According to AllMusic, Rising captured "Blackmore and Dio at the peak of their creative powers...(it) chronicled both the guitarist's neo-classical metal compositions at their most ambitious, and the singer's growing fixation with fantasy lyrical themes – a blueprint he would adopt for his entire career thereafter.