When I was a teenager growing up in the Chicagoland area, the
\ntraditional rite of passage for males was discovering the only
\nheavy metal radio station in the area. When I first heard the metal
\nshow after discarding my previous favorite radio station (I called
\nit “B-Ninety-sucks”), I fell in love with the intensity of the
\nmusic that I heard pounding out of my cheap plastic stereo. (I also
\ndidn’t know the show was on a bartered-airtime station; imagine my
\nsurprise when I turned it on the next morning and heard a foreign
\nlanguage program!)<\/p>\n
One of the artists I discovered at this time was Ronnie James
\nDio. His first album fronting his self-named band, 1983’s
\nHoly Diver<\/i>, featured some incredible music that got my
\nadrenalin pumping. The guitar work of then-unknown Vivian Campbell
\n(who later staked his claim to fame with Def Leppard), the bass
\nthumping of Jimmy Bain, and the drumwork extraordinaire of Vinny
\nAppice – all wrapped around Dio’s ominous-sounding vocals – was a
\ntouch of evil that a clean-cut product of Catholic high school
\nneeded.<\/p>\n
Even now, 15 years after this album came out, it stands out as a
\nsolid album for its time – possibly even ahead of its time, in some
\nways. And while there are some signs of aging on this album, it
\nremains a high-water mark of Dio’s career.<\/p>\n
The songs that got airplay that we young, hormone-driven
\nadolescents thought was significant have held their worth well over
\nthe years. “Rainbow In The Dark” has become a song that has defined
\nDio’s career, and also highlighted the fact he was an early member
\nof Rainbow in the mid-’70s. Likewise, the title track still sounds
\nlike a Texas stomp through a garden of idealism; it has a dark
\nfeeling to it, though it leaves you feeling good in the end.
\nSomehow, Dio’s music has always seemed to be able to do this.<\/p>\n
The one thing I do notice after the passing of over a decade is
\nAppice’s drumming. While he remains one of rock’s most
\nunderappreciated drummers, his rhythmic beats (especially heard in
\nchoruses) is a tad simplistic, relying on quarter-note beats a
\nlittle too much. It leaves me feeling like I’m occasionally
\nlistening to a metronome.<\/p>\n
And I’d be lying if I said that I like every track on
\nHoly Diver<\/i>. “Gypsy” has never been a favorite of mine – it
\nalways seemed a little corny to be following “Holy Diver” – and
\n“Caught In The Middle” almost seems like a nod toward trying to get
\nradio play; it’s the most commercial-sounding track on the album.
\n(I also would have preferred a little more bass in the mix; Dio’s
\nproduction has always seemed to be a little treble-heavy.)<\/p>\n
But the unheralded classic on this album is “Don’t Talk To
\nStrangers,” a song that is well-known among Dio’s fans. This one
\ntrack merges the light and dark streaks of Dio and his music into a
\nsong that should have been a hit. Building from a simple acoustic
\nguitar line from Campbell into a softer approach from the whole
\nband (an idea that lasts only a few precious seconds)before kicking
\ninto the power riffs.<\/p>\n
Campbell’s presence on this band is not lost on me; he truly was
\nan incredibly hot talent at the time, and one whose light just
\ndidn’t seem to burn bright enough with this band. It does surprise
\nme that he would leave the band after one more album; he did seem
\nto be the best fit with Dio.<\/p>\n
\nHoly Diver<\/i> is still an album that was a defining moment for
\nheavy metal’s dominance in the mid- to late-’80s. And while there
\nare a few moments I could live without, there are still many
\nmoments that are incredible – even 15 years after it was
\nreleased.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6034],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36094","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dio","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36094"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36094"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}