Dio

Most people think of the legendary Ronnie James Dio as one of heavy metal's sage elder statesmen, but when his newly minted namesake band performed at the 1983 Castle Donington Monsters of Rock Festival, fresh off the release of its soon-to-be seminal debut album, Holy Diver, the group behaved like a bunch of hungry young upstarts with everything to prove…

Follow Dio through the band's early years with A DECADE OF DIO: 1983-1993, a new box set that brings together their first six studio albums, each featuring newly remastered sound…

Finding the Sacred Heart: Live in Philly 1986 captures Dio's heavy metal antics in full swing in a live performance at the Spectrum in Philadelphia on June 17, 1986. Although Dio are touring to promote the mediocre Sacred Heart album, the show is a classic of the era, full of lasers, explosives, and a massive robotic dragon overlooking the stage…

The first domestically available Dio anthology (following the 1994 German import Diamonds), Rhino's The Very Beast of Dio is jam-packed with 16 tracks taken from the band's seven Warner and Reprise albums (spanning the years 1983-1994)…

The original lineup of Black Sabbath possesses such a mythic quality that it's easy to overlook how far they slid by the time Ozzy Osbourne up and left the band…or how far they rebounded after they hired Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio as his replacement. Countless compilations over the years have preserved the initial part of the story line – celebrating the innovations of the first four albums with a near fetishistic quality – but there has never been a good retrospective concerning the Dio years until Rhino released the aptly titled The Dio Years in early 2007…

The early '80s finally saw singer Ronnie James Dio launch a solo career, after making a name for himself with such renowned metal bands as Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow and Black Sabbath…

After playing a major role in five positively classic heavy metal albums of the late '70s and early '80s (three with Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow and two with Black Sabbath), it seemed that singer Ronnie James Dio could truly do no wrong…

After playing a major role in five positively classic heavy metal albums of the late '70s and early '80s (three with Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow and two with Black Sabbath), it seemed that singer Ronnie James Dio could truly do no wrong. So it wasn't all that surprising – impressive, but not surprising – when he struck gold yet again when launching his solo vehicle, Dio, via 1983's terrific Holy Diver album…

Ronnie James and his latest version of Dio roll out another collection of songs on Killing the Dragon, steeped in the requisite medieval imagery he loves to use. The songs and the sound remain the same throughout, and as far as Dio is concerned this can be both good and bad. From the beginning he takes listeners down a familiar route with "Killing the Dragon," which begins with a sinister intro and quickly kicks in with a classic metal guitar riff – formulaic yes, but definitely rocking…

The final Warner Bros. release for Dio after an 11-year run of hard-edged post-Sabbath recordings, Strange Highways is almost a return to early '80s form for a group that hadn't done anything particularly inspiring since 1984's Last in Line. Joining the band's namesake vocalist Ronnie James Dio on this 1994 release is an all-star lineup, including long-time drumming cohort Vinny Appice, bassist Jeff Pilson (most notably of Dokken, and an nice addition to the group, especially live), and unknown guitarist Tracy G. Dio is in fine voice as usual, especially on "Hollywood Black"…