Dio

In 2005, Dio toured Europe, and as part of that tour, they played some dates called "An Evening with Dio". These shows were unique in that it has been the only time ever that Dio has played the whole of the Holy Diver album live. The show was longer than a usual set it appeared, as in addition to Holy Diver, a collection of songs from the rest of his career were played.

This double live CD is a recording of one of these shows, and while there's starting to be a lot of live Dio albums, this is definitely worthy, because of the live Holy Diver, and some rare live songs (Gates of Babylon leaps to mind).

If you're a fan of older Dio and especially his work in Rainbow and Black Sabbath, then you should check this one out.

This was a contractual obligation album release. For the last few albums before Master of the Moon, Dio was on a different record label (MOTM was first on new one). Anyway, the older record label released a live DVD of the Killing the Dragon tour, and also retained rights to release a companion CD, which they never did until now. That's what this is, a live CD comprised of songs recorded in New York City in 2002 on the KTD tour.

This is not to say it's a bad disc, it's a pretty damn good disc sound wise. There's a few tracks (like Killing the Dragon, Fever Dreams) that sound good live, and I liked having live versions of them. It is, however not the current version of the band, so it might be confusing to someone who saw Dio on tour, and then got a different version of the band (this album has Doug Aldrich on guitar and Jimmy Bain on bass, neither of which are still in the band). Plus it's confusing in it's timing, it should have been released when the DVD was first put out.

However, having said all that, it is Ronnie James Dio live. This is always a great thing. If you don't have any other Dio live albums, you should check it out. If you do have other Dio live, it might be worth it for you for the newer songs played live. Additionally, Amazon's track listing is incorrect. The drum solo and the song "Lord of the Last Day" are not on here. They were to be on, but were removed after press had already been done for the release.

It's 2004. Return Craig Goldie again for a third go around in the band. Exit long time bassist Jimmy Bain. On this album, Jeff Pilson plays bass, but he was only intended for the album - the touring and formal bassist is now Rudy Sazro. Oh yeah, the album... :)

At first I didn't like this album. It took some listening to get into. I initially didn't like it. After Killing the Dragon being a very accessible disc that felt a lot like Holy Diver, we got Master of the Moon, which other than one track wasn't (to me anyway) very listenable. However, that changed over a few listens. My favorite tracks are The Eyes (which was the song I initially liked), plus Shivers, One More for the Road, and Living the Lie. It is a Dio album - there's no doubt about that. Which means it's good - Dio albums are always solid, good work. However, I was not a fan of the political song on here - "The Man Who Would be King", which is about George W Bush. I don't mind the message, but the song itself is my least favorite on the disc.

Been a Dio fan since Day 1. Bought Holy Diver when it was new, and bought all the other ones when they came out. Given I also run www.black-sabbath.com , I'd like to say that I know Ronnie Dio well. This is up there with the good ones, but it didn't catch me quickly at first - I think if you dismiss it after just one or two listens, you're not giving it enough of a chance.

If you're a hardcore Dio fan, then you have all of this material. However, if you don't, it's a worthy pickup, as it covers from Dio's pre solo days in Elf, Rainbow, & Black Sabbath, as well as his Dio material (although it doesn't cover the last 3 studio albums, as they were on a different record label). Still, it's a nice cross section of Dio's career (his first album came out in 1958!) and while this doesn't go back that far, it's something worthy to have if you don't already have all of his albums.

Great liner notes, too, as Ronnie has a paragraph or so to say about every track on here. He even says that one of my personal favorite Sabbath songs (Turn Up the Night) isn't one of his favorites (damn).

Would be nice to see one of these things that cover his pre-Elf material (Ronnie & The Redcaps, Ronnie & The Rumblers, The Electric Elves, etc). But as it stands this is a great package that covers the majority of his career.

This album was released to coincide with a tour Dio was undertaking in the fall of 2002. It has a few extra tracks, which are live versions of Rainbow in the Dark & Fever Dreams (backed by Deep Purple, no less), and a music video for the song Push. If you already have the regular version, you probably don't want this one. However, if you don't have this album at all, pick up this version so you can get the extra tracks. The only reason I have both is that I got a sample copy because of my record label connections from running black-sabbath.com. :)

Dio changes guitarists again, and produces what I believe to be his second best album of all time. KTD was a brilliant album - there's so much here to like, I don't know where to start talking about it. There's only one song on here I don't like (Guilty), but everything else is stellar - I rank it up there with Holy Diver as the all time best Dio albums. There's even an anti-child abuse song on here that was supposed to be made as a benefit song (akin to the "Stars" Hear 'n' Aid of many years ago), but it didn't happen. Some great GREAT stuff on here. Can't go wrong.

Dio puts out a concept album. And totally confuses everyone with it (or at least me and some folks I've spoken to). I was very pleased because Tracy G was gone, and a guitarist I did like (Craig Goldie) returned. However the album confused me. That's because I tried to make sense of the story/concept. Once I forgot about that, and just listened to the music, it worked great. I totally cannot comprehend the concept here. There is also a 15 minute spoken word track at the end spoken by Dio about the "Magica Concept". It's unlistenable. I tried twice, and the second time I forced myself to try and get through it, and I couldn't. The song "Fever Dreams" is one of Dio's all time great ones. The music is great. The concept is not. In addition to the regular version, I also have a promo copy autographed by the band (see image).

Normally live albums bore me. I don't generally rate them very high on my list of favorite albums. This one however fared better with my ears than most live albums. I can't tell you why, especially because it has my least favorite Dio guitarist on it. But this one works.

The second of the two Tracy G studio Dio albums is darker than the first, and has probably the "rawest" sound of any Dio album. There's some great tracks here too, but it's not my favorite "album". The European version of this album has an extra track called "God Hates Heavy Metal", which I wish was on the US domestic version.

After the Sabbath reunion fell apart, Dio put his band back together, but with new guitarist "Tracy G". He's by far my least favorite of Dio's guitarists, he's one of those shredder guitarists, and that's not what I felt Dio's music to be. Which is an odd thing, because there's many tracks on this CD that I really like. It's underrated, and is a "darker" Dio album, but still very good.

At the time this was new, Dio had replaced his entire band with all new folks, and there was a quote about "wanting to recapture the feel of the first Dio album". It didn't work. This is the worst Dio album, and even the most accessible track "Wild One" pales to other Dio gems. Don't care for this at all, but being that I'm a Dio fan, I hang on to it. :) After this, Dio went and did the Sabbath reunion, and issued a European Greatest Hits CD (called "Diamonds"), but I never bothered with that (the hits album that is).

A very underrated album, and in my opinion, probably Dio's third best album. "Side 2" is brilliant, some masterpieces here, and "Side 1" has some solid stuff, too. I wish this album had gotten more attention. I think part of the reason I like it is the appearance of guitarist Craig Goldie - he has a much more fluid style than Viv Campbell, and I liked Craig's playing better.

The final of the Vivian Campbell Dio albums, and one I liked better than Last in Line, but most people don't much care for. The last 3 songs aren't that great, but the title track is great, and the "fake live" song to open the album is pretty good, too. (There was another EP that came out after this - Intermission, but I never bothered with that on CD, as it has just one studio track, the rest is live).

The follow-up to Holy Diver is a decent sophomore album, but nowhere near the brilliance of the first album. The title track is one of Dio's best, as is "We Rock", but beyond that, it's a crapshoot with the worst being "Mystery". There's some great stuff, and a couple of clunkers. Still, a worthy purchase.

By far and away, the best Dio album. His first was his best. his is just solid from start to finish, there's nothing wrong here, and definitely a Top 10 metal CD for me. You cannot go wrong buying this one.