Holy Diver

Artist: Dio
Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 075992383622
EAN: 0075992383622
ASIN: B000002KZ1

Release Date: 1990-10-25

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Listmania:

Heavy Metal 101: Volume 2
A list of great head banging 80's metal
All things Dio
ESSENTIAL METAL RECORDS
10 MASTERPIECES OF METAL!!!
The Metal Meltdown
Explore the history of heavy metal
Top CDs of 1983
---THE 25 GREATEST METAL ALBUMS---
80's hard rock classics. In order by year (1980 - 1989)

Tracks:

Stand Up And Shout
Holy Diver
Gypsy
Caught In The Middle
Don't Talk To Strangers
Straight Through The Heart
Invisible
Rainbow In The Dark
Shame On The Night

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The Last in Line
Heaven And Hell
Dream Evil
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Sacred Heart

Customer Reviews:

One of the Most Important Metal Albums of All Time.......2007-03-15

During the time that this album was released, there were other records out like IRON MAIDEN's "Number of the Beast and Piece of Mind", OZZY's "Bark at the Moon", KISS's "Lick it Up", DEF LEPPARD's "Pyromania", and QUIET RIOT's "Metal Health". All of these album's were released in 1983, with the exception of MAIDEN's "Number of the Beast" which was put out in '82. This handful of music, along with DIO's "Holy Diver", defined the term heavy metal. This was back in the day when there were'nt so many sub-genres in metal. I remember back then if you said you liked heavy metal, people knew what you were talking about. It was not the broad spectrum that it is now.
Ronnie James Dio's first solo outing is phenominal! I don't know what else can be said about "Holy Diver" that hasn't been said already but, I'll give it a shot.
"Stand up and Shout" is the opener and what a killer opener it is. Ronnie kicks you in the mouth with this tune and delivers pure metal madness. The title track is very, very good. One of Dio's best. "Gypsy" is a solid song with great guitar work and "Caught in the Middle" is Dio's first inpirational songs in his solo career. "Don't Talk to Strangers" is a classic as well as "Straight Thruogh the Heart". "Invisible" kind of reminds me of his days in RAINBOW and everyone knows about "Rainbow in the Dark". The last track, "Shame on the Night" ends the album. I don't really care for the last song, but the rest of the album more than makes up for it.
"Holy Diver" is one of the greatest albums ever made. It also features the then young and very talented Vivian Campbell on guitar. I feel some of the best metal guitar solos are on on this CD courtesy of Vivian. On the drums we have Vinnie Appice whom Ronnie had played with during his short but memorable stint with BLACK SABBATH. He is not the most flashy of drummers, but he is very tight and keeps all the songs in the pocket. We also have Jimmy Bain on the bass guitar who was in another band with Dio called RAINBOW. He, like Vinnie Appice is a very tight bassist who does what needs to be done.
Ronnie's first album is essential to all who love great music. "Holy Diver" is one of the definitive metal classics of the age and should not be ignored. It is truly one of the most important albums in history.

Dio Is A Good SInGer.........2007-02-01

Dio's WiFe's The ChairmAn Of ChiLdRen Of The Night who Help's PrOsTituTes aGes 11-17. Dio Rocks.

Dio Breaks From Sabbath With Great Results.......2007-01-14

Ronnie James Dio is probably my all time favorite rock vocalist. I was first exposed to him with the live "On Stage" album from Rainbow and have been a fan ever since. I just saw him live again a few years ago and even in his 6th decade his voice is still as good as ever. "Holy Diver" was Dio's first solo album after leaving Black Sabbath. The album cover of a Demon (the devil?) drowning a chained priest in the ocean turned off a lot of people, and portrayed Dio as evil incarnate to many. The music on the album is pretty much top notch. Some of Dio's lyrics are a bit hard to swallow, but overall this is a solid disc. The band at the time consisted of Vinny Appice (former Black Sabbath), Vivian Campbell (who would go on to join Def Leppard), and Jimmy Bain (former Rainbow). The album contained what is probably Dio's biggest solo hit "Rainbow In The Dark". Highlights include the title track "Holy Diver", even though its lyrics don't make a lot of sense. "Gypsy", "Caught In The Middle", the slow "Don't Talk To Strangers", "Invisible" and "Shame On The Night" are all classic Dio. My only problems is sometimes Ronnie's lyrics just sound like he put in any old word that rhymes with another one. Many of his songs sound like they are trying to say something important, but when you sit down and listen to them; they don't make a lot of sense. That is a minor quibble though, as this is one of the classic metal albums of the 80's.

Holy Dio!!.......2007-01-05

All I can say is that Dio is one hell of a singer. He sings his a** off!!
To me Black Sabbath sounded better with him on vocals but that's just me. One thing worth mentioning is that Dio is not Dio's solo band but a real band, when they started it, they didn't know how to name it and they used Dio's name but decided to leave it like that, anyway!

This is how metal should sound like!!!!!

Not Quite Sold on the "Holy Diver" Concept..........2006-12-21

But doubt ye not that RAINBOW IN THE DARK f*cking ROCKS...

But let's look at this Holy Diver thing for a minute. Call me shallow, but I can't find any connection between "Diver", "tiger" and "Survivor" except that they rhyme--apparently. Would a Diver cross paths with a tiger? "You can see his stripes but you know he's clean". I guess that would be some sort of bestial appraisal of the tiger's fitness? I can't really imagine what other considerations would lead a diver to close the distance and mount a tiger. And that's not all. The song gets even more graphic later about whatever's going on with the "tiger", quite possibly something UNholy. Do fantasy world cultures hold that kind of oneness with nature, as it were, in a different sort of esteem?
When Ronnie says, "Oh, don't you see what I mean?" I can feel for him, I really can, but in fact I seriously don't have the foggiest about what's going on with these lyrics!
"Between the velvet lies there's a truth as hard as steel." Maybe it's all in the fabric, but when I find something hard as steel between the cotton or the polyester, it usually means I really should just get up and take a whiz because it's time to rise and shine, and that's the "truth".
Wait, wait! Finally Ronnie just throws his arms up in the air with the proclamation that "Life's a never-ending wheel." And I'd say he's "dead" on, except that life is not never-ending. And it's not really like a wheel.

STRAIGHT THROUGH THE HEART rocks mightily, giving RAINBOW IN THE DARK some nice company on this disk. And CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE skims along on some cool riffing that might remind you of Bark at the Moon era Ozzy.

Overall, the mystical touches that worked so well on Heaven and Hell, which Dio did with Black Sabbath, seem overdone and don't really come together here. I don't really notice it when one track ends and the next one starts, except for RAINBOW. `Diver is not a bad metal disk and you probably won't regret owning it, but personally I just can't really get excited about it like I can about disks from other artists.

PS Were you folks at Amazon aware that over the holidays someone actually hacked into your website and anonymously deleted this review? My e-mail address is right on my profile, and I could have worked with anyone who had an issue with parts of my review. What a weenie thing to do, isn't it? Well, thank goodness I save all my reviews. So here's to copy and paste, and all the other accoutrements of modern technology! THX--PROBLEM CHILD

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