Elf Albums, The (Carolina County Ball/Trying To Burn The Sun) - Ronnie James Dio

Advantages: more melodic and faster than his previous efforts, amazing vocals
Disadvantages: few weaker links

...Ronnie James Dio has delivired us heavy metal for over 30 years and was the man behind such huge bands such as Black Sabbath, Rainbow and Elf! Since 1983 he has gone solo and his first two solo albums, "Holy Diver" and "Last in Line" were very beloved and were high in the charts at their time, unfortunately since then it has only been a downhill... Dio apparently started to give that popularity decline some thought and this indesputable led him going for the same musical direction as his first 2 very popular albums. In fact it does sound so similar to them that you could think this would be his third release. If this would have been made in the mid 80s and released as his third album, I would have no doubt that this would have been very successful. However, even released in 2002, it reached Top40 charts in a few European countries... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Brash, confident, powerful, melodic
Disadvantages: A little over the top

...Holy Diver came out in 1983 and is the first album by Dio, whose main man Ronnie James Dio was previously in Black Sabbath, and before that in Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. For a first album by a band this is really a pretty good effort. Lyrically and musically it sounds perhaps not dissimilar to Iron Maiden, with themes of fantasy and spirituality being interwoven with the music. Musically it also sounds like a more Americanised New Wave of British Heavy Metal effort. There are some very good, melodic tracks such as "Don't Talk to Strangers" and "Rainbow in the Dark" and no bad tracks at all. If you like old-style melodic metal then this album is well worth getting. Granted, it is a bit overblown and cheesey, but all Dio albums are to one extent or another, and really it's part of the band's charm. There is a lot of posturing... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Dio has returnd to his classical sound and lyrics
Disadvantages: today Dio's older than in 1983, so he's not as good as then

...I don't know if you have, but i've been waiting for that for many years. Of course, I loved 'Angry Machines' and 'Strange Highways', but I missed those classical DIO's songs like Holy Diver, Rock'n'Roll Children... You know all those song as good as I do, I suppose. I didn't think it could repeat again. I've got used to new DIO sound (it was great, too, wasn't it?). But here it is! Completely classical, absoulutely new, and fully conceptual album from Ronnie James DIO! I tried to find any weak track but I failed. There are only two negative points. The first (and the worst) - Ronnie, unfortunally, doesn't get younger, so his vocal is not as good as it was twenty years before. But, anyway, his voice is still one of the best on hard rock/heavy metal scene, in my opinion. And the second - track Annica (an excelent instrumental composotion... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful