Shane’s Music Challenge: DIO – 1983 – Holy Diver

Shane | 19 January 2014 | Reply

DIO – 1983 – Holy Diver

Call me old or old-fashioned, but when I hear the term ‘Heavy Metal’, I think of early 80’s, denim and leather and studs, headbanging metal – not the myriad of cookie monster-gargling, dirge-grinding extremos that have co-opted the term nowadays.

There are few albums that stand as highly regarded in the pantheon of metal (from now on, let’s just take it as read that heavy metal to me – and ergo, for the purposes of this exercise – is Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Black Sabbath et al) as the debut album from Ronnie James Dio’s eponymous band Dio.

Fresh from years treading the boards with a variety of late 60’s outfits and his long haired boogie bar band Elf, Dio and most of his band were shanghaied into service under Ritchie Blackmore in his new troupe Rainbow. The band lasted only one album, Dio a couple more, before it all fell in a heap with the famously fractious guitarist.

He fell on his feet though, landing the gig in the post-Ozzy Osbourne Black Sabbath, and produced a couple of excellent albums with them before another petty falling out left him on his arse once again.

Enter Dio the band: fellow Sabbath man Vinny Appice came along for the ride, while Vivian Campbell and Jimmy Bain rounded out the initial line-up, and the result was Holy Diver, as good a collection of heavy metal songs as you will find anywhere.

Holy Diver completed Dio’s trilogy of unarguable classics – all made with different bands, a unique achievement unequalled by just about anyone, off the top of my head – Rainbow’s Rising, Sabbath’s Heaven & Hell, and Dio’s Holy Diver, and he would never again create an album so cohesive and vital, so essential, as these three, no matter how much great music he still had in him.

Killer tracks – I could name anything off this album – there’s not an ounce of fat to be found, but to narrow it down to absolute essentials, go for opener Stand Up And Shout (which you will), Don’t Talk To Strangers and the pure class of Rainbow In The Dark.

10/10