There is an old saying that I’m fond of using: The third time’s
\nthe charm.<\/p>\n
Too bad for Ronnie James Dio that it didn’t apply to
\nSacred Heart<\/i>, the third album by the band he led, and the
\nlast to feature guitarist Vivian Campbell. Taking the same formula
\nwhich he had used for almost his entire career, Dio tried again to
\ncopy the success he had with such albums as
\nHoly Diver<\/i>, only this time the results sound tired.<\/p>\n
True,
\nSacred Heart<\/i> did experience some popularity in its day,
\nthanks to the singles “Hungry For Heaven,” “Rock And Roll Children”
\nand “Shoot Shoot” — but nearly 20 years after this album’s
\nrelease, the sad fact is that these have not aged well at all.
\nThat’s really a shame, since I remember absolutely loving “Rock And
\nRoll Children” back when I was 14 — and other works by Dio from
\naround this same time frame still sound as fresh today as they did
\nwhen he recorded them.<\/p>\n
Part of the problem is that Dio teeters far too close to the
\nedge of self-parody on numbers like “King Of Rock And Roll” and the
\ntitle track. In a sense, these tracks have the vibe that Dio is
\njust taking himself far too seriously. Part of the problem, too, is
\nDio’s constant reliance on the Dungeons & Dragons theme which
\nhas almost always been present in his music. Sure, it worked for a
\nwhile, but after a while, even your favorite food becomes tiresome
\nif you eat it three meals a day. That same logic is applied to
\nDio’s songwriting efforts — there’s only so much you can write
\nabout lurking evil, dragons and whatnot without treading over the
\nsame paths time and time again.<\/p>\n
Even the playing is not quite up to snuff. Campbell was,
\nundoubtedly, the best guitarist that Dio has ever recruited into
\nhis fold, but even his work sounds haggard on
\nSacred Heart<\/i>. Whereas there were some guitar solos on
\nHoly Diver<\/i> and
\nThe Last In Line<\/i> which easily burn their way into your
\nmemory, Campbell’s work on
\nSacred Heart<\/i> dares to be atypical of the metal genre of that
\ntime, and doesn’t do anything to separate itself from the pack.
\nThat’s truly a shame — and maybe was a sign that Campbell was
\nlooking towards spreading his musical wings in short time.<\/p>\n
Dio’s music has always been wrapped up in a fantasy world, but
\nSacred Heart<\/i> is more of a pipe dream for Dio and a nightmare
\nfor the listener, starting what became a slippery slope for Dio in
\nterms of popularity. To declare this one as a must-own would be a
\nsacrilege.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6034],"rating":[5616],"class_list":["post-37876","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dio","rating-rating-d"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37876","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=37876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37876"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}