A confession: It’s been a long, long time since I have listened
to any of Ronnie James Dio’s solo work.
When I was about ten years younger, I was banging my head to
albums like
Holy Diver and
The Last In Line just like the rest of my buddies in school.
But for some reason, I just lost interest in Dio, especially after
Sacred Heart and
Dream Evil failed to impress me.
But I’ve recently become interested in Dio’s work again, for two
reasons. First, loyal reader Trent Nakagawa responded to my
five-year search for a copy of AC/DC’s “Jailbreak” video – and was
nice enough to throw on other videos from MTV’s “Headbanger’s
Ball,” including “The Last In Line”. Second, I got a chance to
listen to Dio’s first full-length live solo album,
Inferno: Last In Live, and was amazed at how good he still
sounds.
The star players in Dio’s band are long gone (save for drummer
Vinny Appice), and guitarist Tracy G and bassist Larry Dennison
might not have the flash that some former members of the band
showed, but Dio has assembled a crew of musicians, a lineup which
debuted on Dio’s last album
Angry Machines, that holds its own quite well. And Dio
himself has lost little – if any – of his vocal abilities, never
mind the fact it’s been almost 20 years since he took over for Ozzy
Osbourne in Black Sabbath.
Recorded in New York City, Chicago and Schaumburg (a Chicago
suburb I know quite well), you can tell that Dio isn’t playing to
Madison Square Garden. But the truth is that the club atmosphere
seems to work better on this album – it’s more personal, and Dio
even seems to be more at ease with it, judging from his on-stage
rapport with the audience.
Many of the hits are here, and for the most part, they sound
pretty close to the way you remember their studio counterparts
sounded. “Don’t Talk To Strangers” is a wonderful surprise on this
set, a track that I remember well from the local metal show on a
brokered station. Dio covers most of the area of his career that
people have followed religiously (oops…), from Black Sabbath
(“Heaven And Hell,” “The Mob Rules”), Rainbow (“Mistreated (Catch
The Rainbow)”, “Man On The Silver Mountain”) and most facets of his
solo career (“We Rock”, “Holy Diver” “Double Monday”).
What is surprising to me is that even the newer songs sound like
they’re vintage Dio, meaning whatever stylistic changes he was
making around the time of
Dream Evil he discarded – smart move. And while the
performances aren’t as flashy as one would expect some to be (Tracy
G’s guitar solos are rather subdued), the resulting sound is a bit
more natural. You can then understand why Dio never went away
during metal’s decline.
Clocking in at about 80 minutes over two discs,
Inferno: Last In Live tends to be a quick listen – I was
surprised to have the album finish just as I was really getting
into it. But then again, maybe it’s better that Dio didn’t
overstate his case on this one.
If you loved Dio’s early solo work or you just got into him
recently thanks to
Angry Machines, then
Inferno: Last In Live is a must-own for you, and is one of
the better live albums I’ve heard in over 15 years of collecting
music. After listening to this, you know I’ll be searching the
Pierce Archives for my well-worn copies of Dio’s earlier works.
