Holy Diver 1983

"Ronnie James Dio, heavy metal legend and all round good guy, passed away on May 16th, 2010, but he lives on in his music, and this album, the first album by his band Dio, certainly is a legendary heavy metal masterpiece, which, despite being first released back in 1983, and despite being traditional 80s heavy metal, still stands the test of time.

This owes in a large part to Ronnie James Dios amazing vocals, but also to his ability to compose solid hard rock songs, and "Holy Diver" contains nothing but solid hard rock and metal songs from the heavy title track (which has later been covered by Killswich Engage) over the uptempo opener "Stand Up And Shout" to the more commercial "Rainbow in the Dark". There is also some great guitar work by Viv Campbell on this masterpiece of a metal album.

This belongs in any heavy metal collection!

(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"

"Similar to Dio's Rainbow "Holy Diver" is more Metal butr also more emotional and ambient. "Holy Diver" is the Dio's key album. Fundamental in 198 like today. In a certain sense another father of Revival Classic Metal! So it's true "Holy Diver is my Dio's definitive album!"