jarpywarpy

Fantastic posts, such a great read. I think my favourite will always be Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow.

ChefBrunch

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You can learn to like new music in the same way you learn to like new food.

Trollheart

Part V: Dio resurgent
Two more years would pass before Ronnie would return to the studio, to start work on what would be his eighth Dio album, and the first that reverted back to the old fantasy themes, moving away from the more modern ideas expressed through the last two studio albums, which had generally proven unpalatable to many Dio fans, and led to sliding record sales. For this album, Craig Goldy would return, to replace the departed Tracy G, and Jimmy Bain would again take up the bass duties.

Magica - Dio - 2000 (Spitfire)


With a new label, and disappointing record sales for both Strange Highways and his most recent album, Angry Machines, Ronnie decided it was time for a change. The new, science-fiction themed lyrics had not really worked, and the whole sound of the band was in danger of descending into a bad parody of Black Sabbath, so Ronnie declared this album would be a concept album, follow a storyline, and be much more progressive metal than previous albums. With some past members returning, it became one of Dio's most successful later albums, and was largely seen as their comeback.

It opens with a computer voice intoning the introduction, less than a minute which goes under the name of “Discovery”, then keyboards and heavy guitar usher in “Magica Theme”, and right away you're punching the air and exclaiming YESSS! THIS is what Dio is all about, and it's great to hear them finally getting back to basics and giving us something to anticipate. Great guitar intro from the returning Craig Goldy, then “Lord of the Last Day” gets all heavy and grungy again, but with more keyboard backup this time to keep it from getting too bogged down, while “Fever Dreams” has a lot more energy and excitement about it, and low, humming synth is used to very dramatic effect while Goldy channels Gilmour on The Wall before “Turn to Stone” gets going.

No, it's not the old ELO song, fool! A good upbeat rocker, with Ronnie sounding more on song than he has for years in my opinion. The computer voice seems to link the songs, making comments and reports at the end of some of them, and “Feed My Head” is preceded by one such, and is itself a powerful but mid-paced rocker, with some more great solos from Goldy and not so much of the keyboard work this time. “Eriel” follows something the same line, the deeper, muddier tone of slow songs from previous albums somehow lightened this time around, mostly by some fine keyboard work courtesy of Scott Warren.

“Challis” is a real uptempo metal rocker in the style of “classic” Dio, with great guitar solos, Ronnie singing his heart out and smooth keyboard fills from Warren. It's followed by a heavy guitar-led ballad, “As Long as it's Not About Love”, then an almost Irish jig opens “Losing My Insanity”, with some flutes and fiddles before the song bops along at a fine pace, with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. Things continue well with “Otherworld”, very dramatic, ominous and with some fine strings or possibly synthesiser strings, till we run into “Magica (reprise)”, less than two minutes long but some of the best music on this album since “Magica Theme”, and it's followed by “Lord of the Last Day (reprise)”, another short track but I would have preferred the previous one to have been the closer.

Technically, neither are the last track, as that's eighteen minutes plus of Ronnie relating the story of Magica, with no music, and it's called “Magica Story”, but as there's no music to speak of it's not really worth including in the review here, but worth listening to if you didn't get the idea of the concept behind the album, and also interesting to hear Ronnie's voice when he's not singing.

Like many bands, and indeed, many rock bands, Dio's lineup constantly shifted and changed, and after some differences of opinion between he and Goldy, the guitarist left the band (again) and was replaced for their ninth album with Doug Aldritch.

Killing the Dragon - Dio - 2002 (Spitfire)


Continuing the return to form that had been seen on Magica, Dio produced what I consider to be one of their best later albums, right up there with Holy Diver. Keyboards again feature heavily in the mix, and this time Ronnie takes elements from the ideas that informed Angry Machines and successfully melds them with the older themes like those from Magica and Rainbow's Rising, to create what was pretty much the best of both worlds on his penultimate studio album. The opener, and title track, leaves you in no doubt as to what to expect, and new guitarist Aldritch is eager to prove his chops, racking off solo after solo.

Then, just when you think he's going back to the old formula, with another heavy cruncher as the second track, “Along Comes a Spider” rocks along at a good pace, a real bopper, with some really sharp guitar riffs and powerful drumming, then “Scream” is a heavy cruncher, but more along the lines of “Egypt” or “The Last in Line” than some of the really heavier tracks that characterised some of the more recent albums. Then we're off and blazing again with another fast rocker - something that has been missing from the last few Dio albums - with “Better in the Dark”, featuring some blistering fretwork from Aldritch.

That familiar “Kashmir” sound returns for the simply titled “Rock and Roll”, really punchy and anthemic, a real powerhouse, then “Push” kicks everything back up into high gear as it hurtles along, followed by “Guilty”, which keeps up the pressure, a little less frenetic and a little more grungy admittedly, but still a great song. “Throw Away the Children” is a big, heavy, crunching pounder sung with a lot of passion and fervour by Ronnie, with a superb guitar solo in the middle, and following in the footsteps of Pink Floyd and Richard Marx, Ronnie enlists the aid of a children's choir on the chorus, giving the song added impact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIP4Gkgoh0k
“Before the Fall” gets things rocking again, with a really proggy keyboard solo by Scott Warren that recalls the heyday of Rainbow, and “Cold Feet” closes the album well on a mid-paced rocker with a very catchy hook, the underlying and overpowering message here: Dio are back!



Master of the Moon - Dio - 2004 (Sanctuary)


To have been followed, in due course, by volume two, and three, of Magica, this was in the end the final album released by Dio. It marked the return of Craig Goldy on guitar, as well as Jeff Pilson on bass, this being the first time the two had played together on a Dio album. It opens with the prophetic “One More for the Road”, a fast hard rocker that continues the return to form seen on Killing the Dragon, with another slow cruncher following in the shape of the title track, with some grinding guitar from Goldy, bringing us into “The End of the World”, another hard cruncher with some deep, throaty bass from the returning Pilson. “Shivers” is a more mid-paced hard rocker, while things slow down for the intro to “The Man Who Would Be King”, then it ramps up on the back of Scott Warren's powerful organ, probably the first I've heard his keyboards on this album up to now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HipGuzP2pw0
It's very much in the vein of “Egypt”, a slow, stomping beat that plods on like a golem, but with some great melodic ideas. Some unwelcome vocoder work as “The Eyes” begins, and unfortunately it continues through the track, giving the unsettling idea of a rock track mixed with pop or dance. Yeah, I hate vocoders. Good song though: another slow one, very heavy but so far I find this album lacking the immediacy and spontonaeity of Killing the Dragon. The guys do a passable “Iron Maiden chant” at the end of this song though, which is fun to hear.

Things finally speed up again for “Living the Lie”, but then it's back to the rock crunchers for “I am”, marching along with fierce determination until “Death By Love” presses down hard on the pedal again and the Dio machine goes rocketing off for one last time, Ronnie namechecking a few older songs in this one, album titles too. We end then on a metal cruncher, growling guitars and thumping bass taking “In Dreams” to its position as the last ever Dio track recorded, and the album closes strongly enough.

For the final Dio album I find this a little lacking. Of course, Ronnie had no idea he would not get to record another after this, but it is a pity that it doesn't provide a stronger, more representative example of the music Dio could produce, and as a swansong - even if unintended - by the band, it's a little weak.

After the release of Killing the Dragon the band went on tour, and from that tour came two live albums, a year apart. In 2005 they released Evil or Divine: Live in New York City, which pretty much essentially reproduces the tracklist on the Inferno live album, with the addition of a few tracks off the last album and one off Magica, and a few bits and pieces here and there.

Evil or Divine: Live in New York City - Dio - 2005 (Spitfire)


Of far more interest was Holy Diver Live, released the following year. On this album, the band performed the entire album Holy Diver in sequence, and the second disc of the live set was basically taken up by mostly Rainbow and Sabbath material Ronnie recorded while with them, such as “Sign of the Southern Cross” and of course “Heaven and Hell” from Sabbath, as well as “Tarot Woman” and “Gates of Babylon” from his Rainbow days.

Holy Diver Live - Dio - 2006 (Eagle)


At least there are no medleys with Rainbow songs this time, but you would still wonder why the only songs he took from the Black Sabbath era (or, at least, were included on the album) were those two, as there were better songs he could have chosen. Nevertheless, this basically is the last live Dio album, other than one which would be released in 2010 but recorded in the late eighties.


Ronnie then linked up again with Black Sabbath members Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, and reunited with his former Dio/Sabbath bandmate Vinny Appice once again. The four entered the studio in 2007 to work on their first project together since 1992, a compilation of the work of Ronnie with Black Sabbath. While I normally don't take note of compilations, this one is worth looking at as it features three new songs which were essentially the first ones written by the new band which would come out of this collaboration, and result in a full album and tour.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018