Last In Line, The - Dio

Advantages: More eclectic than the first, equally as catchy but not as fun
Disadvantages: Dio's voice despite being good becomes a bit wearing

Last in Line is Dio's 2nd album released in 1984 by Vertigo Records, it retains the catchiness and upbeatness of the 1st album but the only issue here is that to some extent it doesn't evolve a great deal, harder and more recognisable bass lines are added as is Claude Schnell's keyboard playing. Dio's voice occasionally goes into overdrive particularly on tracks like "We Rock" where the fact that is so loud could easily soften the effect of the superb ...
...as "The Last in Line" which is one of those Led Zeppelin going nowhere type smoochies which despite an outburst of metal and chorus eventually materialising, it doesn't rescue the track. One of my personal favourite tracks is "Eat Your Heart Out" which is Dio at their best but also posseses a truly excellent riff worthy of earlier glam rockers. The track Egypt is much acclaimed, initially musically similar to Alice Cooper's Brutal Planet album but ... Read review

Advantages: Up there with the best of Dio
Disadvantages: Er..

...The wee magician is back with a lavishly packaged CD including "The Story Of Magica", a fold-out A3 size page containing the closely typed tale of the alien explorers who land on the planet Blessing. And on it goes, but I must confess I haven't quite got round to reading it all. "Discovery", a robotically spoken intro leads into the "Magica Theme" before we get to the first track proper, "Lord Of The Last Day". This leads seamlessly into "Fever Dreams", a track which was on one of those Classic Rock freebies a few months back. These two are real throwbacks to Dio's glory days of "Holy Diver" and "Last In Line". Great Stuff. "Turn To Stone" strangely doesn't appear on the insert, but carries on the good work before that damn robot intervenes again. "Feed My Head" gets things underway again with its cheery chorus of "All is lost... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

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