Life’s a never ending wheel

In honour of Ronnie James Dio, who passed away last week at the age of sixty-seven, here’s an excerpt on his classic album Holy Diver from the book The 100 Best and Absolute Greatest Heavy Metal Albums in the World, Ever.

“Holy Diver has it all. Packed to the hilt with bona fide classics, there ain’t a filler among them. Because this, THIS is the quintessential heavy metal album. What makes it so? Let’s break it down. One of the greatest metal frontmen who ever lived: check. Amazingly tight, flawlessly crafted songs: check. Top-notch musicianship by some of the most talented names in the business: hell yeah. Holy Diver is one of those albums that makes you think yes, metal is for me. It is single handedly responsible for recruiting whole armies of lost music lovers to the genre. A quick look at the track listing should explain everything.

“‘Stand Up and Shout’ is the monstrous opening anthem that sets the tone for the rest of this superb album. The title track comes in next, with its slow synth intro and a truly awesome opening riff. Your body will move, it’s unavoidable. The lyrics are brilliant, the songwriting faultless and Vivian Campbell’s efforts on guitar are breathtaking. Jimmy Bain and Vinnie Appice deliver strong performances on bass and drums and Campbell exhibits his remarkable talent without smothering the almighty Dio. ‘Caught in the Middle,’ ‘Don’t Talk to Strangers’ and ‘Straight Through the Heart’ make up one formidable hat trick in the middle of the album. The keyboards on ‘Rainbow in the Dark’ will give you chills. So you see, this is Dio at his absolute best. Holy Diver is a landmark album in heavy metal history and if it wasn’t obvious already, you need it.”

There you have it. I would have posted that excerpt sooner, but I’m afraid that up until today it had been in a box for a month, like most of my other books.

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