Forty Year Friday (1983) – DIO “HOLY DIVER”

It’s Forty Year Friday again. For more information on this series, please read the opening paragraph of the first post, which featured Never Surrender by Triumph.

Posted on my Facebook page November 7, 2013:

This week’s Thirty-Year Thursday album is “HOLY DIVER” by DIO, which was released in May 1983. Like the last couple of albums in this series (Def Leppard’s “Pyromania” and Iron Maiden’s “Piece Of Mind”), I wasn’t a fan when it was released, only giving it a shot when my musical tastes came around to heavier music again in the mid- to late-’90s. There’s no doubt that the early-’80s were a great period for hard rock & heavy metal, and “Holy Diver” is up there with the best of them. It’s the debut album from the band fronted by former Elf/Rainbow/Black Sabbath singer Ronnie James Dio (R.I.P.) along with drummer (and former Black Sabbath bandmate) Vinny Appice, bassist/keyboardist (and former Rainbow bandmate) Jimmy Bain, and relative newcomer/future Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell. Lyrically, Dio can be a bit cartoonish, with all the sword-and-sorcery themes, but I consider that a good thing since they sound like no one else of their era and they were clearly having fun.

There’s not a weak song on the album, with Dio’s impressive vocals leading the way and Campbell shredding away but always remaining melodic. Highlights include the anthemic “Stand Up & Shout,” the chugging epic “Holy Diver,” the keyboard-heavy pop-metal of “Rainbow In The Dark,” the driving, almost AC/DC-esque “Gypsy” and the slow-building “Don’t Talk To Strangers.” The only other Dio title I own is the cleverly-titled career-spanning compilation called “The Very Beast Of Dio” which has a lot of excellent music recorded during the subsequent decade. Based on various reviews I’ve read, “Holy Diver” is still considered the pinnacle of his “solo” career (I put solo in quotes because Dio is technically a band), but even if he/they never topped it, that’s understandable because it’s such a strong debut. Does anyone know if other Dio albums are worth seeking out, or should that compilation be sufficient? Anyway, happy 30th anniversary to HOLY DIVER. Here’s the typically ridiculous original video for the title track. Enjoy the silliness…and the kick-ass music.

I already discussed Dio’s “awe-inspiring” vocals in Parts 4, 6 & 7 of my series on the Black Sabbath discography in 2012. After making a name for himself with Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, he fronted Black Sabbath in the early ’80s for two fantastic albums before launching his solo career with Holy Diver, and later found time to rejoin Sabbath twice, in 1992 and 2008 (when they called themselves Heaven & Hell). No matter who he played with, and no matter how old he was (Dio was already over 40 when he recorded Holy Diver), his one-of-a-kind voice remained an amazingly powerful force, and his death in 2010 left a huge void in the world of hard rock & heavy metal.