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Is this the best Dio album? | ‘Holy Diver’ - Classic Album Review
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In a new Classic Album Review, Daria & Laz look into Dio’s debut album, ‘Holy Diver’ and the start studded lineup that came to record and execute this essential Metal album!
You can also watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7mfJVCp_TzbPNZNMMemJuw
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Transcript
Introduction to Hosts and Topic
00:00:08
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to Man's with Metal. My name is Daria. And I'm Laz. And together we're a husband and wife team, both pro musicians talking all things heavy metal. And today we're bringing you a review of an amazing album called Holy Diver by Dio.
00:00:25
Speaker
So, Dio's Holy Diver, which came out in 1983, was actually the debut album from him as a solo artist, having left Black Sabbath and his other projects in the 70s. And it's a landmark album because not only is it considered one of, you know, Heavy Metal's greatest albums, but it's Dio's debut album. I think it's such a fantastic masterpiece to execute and give to audiences from his first go at writing an album on his own.
Key Band Members and Their Contributions
00:00:49
Speaker
Yeah, and do you know what I was interested in when I was listening to it is
00:00:53
Speaker
What are the people? Who are they behind this album? Do you want to talk about it? Yeah, so let's talk about the band. So we've got Vivian Campbell, who is famous for being in Death Leopard, but he actually came from Sweet Savage. You've got him on guitar. You've got Jimmy Bain, who was playing with Rainbow, who was playing with Dio in Rainbow on bass. You've got Vinny Apece, who came from Black Sabbath to play drums. And then obviously you've got Ronnie James Dio on lead vocals.
00:01:19
Speaker
And what's interesting about this is that you really get the feeling listening to the album that there's lots of styles going on within it. And we're going to get onto that next. But I love the fact that I can just imagine that all of these guys brought something from their previous project. You know, Vivian Campbell was in Sweet Savage, who were one of the new wave of British heavy metal bands. So they're bringing with them, you know, the jewelry guitars, you know, especially as a guitarist, the punkiness. You've got Vinnie a piece coming from Black Sabbath, bringing the doominess, bringing
00:01:52
Speaker
maybe a progressive element, maybe more of a classical bass around the album, and then Dio being Dio having his traditional metal elements and characteristics there. And what a lineup, I mean, and you can hear it in the album, it's masterfully performed and executed. That's what happens when you get a great bunch of musicians to write an album together.
00:02:13
Speaker
As last said previously, all these musicians brought something into the album, didn't they? So what we're going to do today, we're going to talk about these styles that they brought into the album separately.
Exploring Musical Styles and Influences
00:02:24
Speaker
So I'm going to kick this off with an opinion that might be a little controversial or a little, you know, people might not agree with me. I actually think the base of this album, BASC, not the bass guitar, is in glam metal. And what I mean by that is this.
00:02:41
Speaker
I'm not talking about the hair or the makeup or coming from, you know, the Los Angeles music scene. I'm talking about how the music sounds. Now, in glam metal, these are characteristics. You've got anthemic choruses, upbeat music, flashy guitar riffs and solos, and even a power ballad as well. And I hear this in the music. Yeah. I hear it in terms of we've got heavy riffs, we've got fast guitars, but it sounds agreeable. It sounds pleasant.
00:03:09
Speaker
You know, one thing we quickly talk about Metallica, 1983's Killamal is speed metal. 1984, is it four? Yeah, 1984's Ride the Lightning is thrash metal, and the difference for me is the agreeableness of the riffs. The speed's the same, the instrumentation the same, the aggression's the same, but the riffs in Killamal are nice to listen to, and I think that's because it's a bit glam influenced, whereas Ride the Lightning is thrash. And this is what I'm hearing here. Although it's fast, although it's heavy, although it's pacey,
00:03:38
Speaker
It's nice to listen to, the riffs are nice, they're consonant, they're agreeable. And that's where I feel like the base of this album is in glam. Okay. I do agree. I don't think it's full on glam metal album. So this is why I was like, yeah, I'm sure many others, I think. Yeah. But I see where you, yeah, I definitely see that we hear it in, you know, caught in the middle chorus. Yeah. Very anthemic, very singing. You know, you want to sing along to that. You've got even rainbow in the dark.
00:04:08
Speaker
I feel like it is a heavy rip, but it is actually glimey on the surface.
00:04:12
Speaker
You've got that keyboard melody going by. I think, Don't Talk to Strangers, although it is not a slow song the whole way through, that for me is Dio's Power Ballad. Because we know that Glam Metal is famous for that, for songs about love and a slower song on the album. I think Don't Talk to Strangers is this version of the Power Ballad. But I'm not gonna die on this hill, I'm not gonna say this is a Glam Metal album because we're gonna go a lot deeper, but I just hear on the surface a lot of glaminess to it.
00:04:42
Speaker
Another huge genre that we just can't ignore is traditional metal.
00:04:47
Speaker
it's so big in this album and I mean my favorite song of the album is Holy Diver and straight away in the verse you hear this galloping and you and you think you know did maiden listen to this and get inspired and stuff like Don't Talk to Strangers as well I had some galloping there and we've got dual leads and songs that caught in the middle and it's just it seems like
00:05:13
Speaker
It's the glue that pieces it all together for me really because you can hear bits and pieces of it in so many songs and tell them. Absolutely and when you've got people like Dio and Vinnie a piece who have come from playing that traditional metal with Black Sabbath then of course that's going to be such a huge monumental part of it. So one of our headings here we've actually got traditional slash doom and what we mean by doom is that I'm not talking about a slow heavy
00:05:39
Speaker
I'm just talking about certain riffs and sections. In the song Invisible, I think that's quite a doomy riff. That could be Sabbath. Straight Through the Heart, that's also doomy, but a bit bluesy. The way I said that the last one could be Sabbath. Straight Through the Heart could be Sabbath or it could be Deep Purple. And I just feel like you've got remnants and littering of traditional metal and doom metal spread throughout the album, coming from the likes of Sabbath. But they never take it too far. You never listen to one song and think, oh, they're trying to be Sabbath or rainbow.
00:06:08
Speaker
Yeah, and what you should probably remember about do metal here is that it's not very obvious. You really need to listen into it, you know? So stuff like stand up and shout. You've got lots of dissonant bass notes.
00:06:24
Speaker
And if you're just listening to the song, you probably wouldn't even think of it, to be honest with you. You wouldn't think it just blends in. And this is where I think the band played their part because I think any other bass player might have just hit the root notes and just played what would have sounded good. But you've got Jimmy Bain, who knows his music theory, who knows his classicalism, who gets metal.
00:06:46
Speaker
playing things like that dissonant note you made. And in talking about traditional metal, we are talking also about dissonance, which is where a note doesn't sound nice being played next to another note. Black Sabbath, famous for this, their first song from their first album, Black Sabbath, incredibly dissonant. And you've got it here, isn't it? Because the thing is, I said it when I was talking about the glam,
00:07:05
Speaker
that most of the album sounds agreeable and pleasant, but what I love here is the traditional elements, that they're just throwing in a bit of dissonance every now and then. Don't talk to strangers, the verse is really dissonant. It's just great. You know it also. Shame on the night. That last riff...
00:07:21
Speaker
Oh yeah, that's incredible. That's so Sabbath-y, so do me. And it all feels slower overall, that song, actually. Yeah, but I feel like the tempo just comes down in that ending part, but that's probably my favorite riff of the whole album. Incredible stuff. So I think we've summed up pretty nicely the main source styles we're hearing within this. You've got your traditional metal, you've got your doom metal in pieces, you've got your glam, you've got your new wave of British heavy metal coming in there as well.
00:07:51
Speaker
And there's some other little bits, you know, spread throughout. You know, we've got notes of the prog, classical and rock, really. If we look at rock first, I thought a few of the songs sounded a bit like, you know, they could be AC-DC or KISS. Just simple guitar riffs, not speedy, not technical. You know, Gypsy, that sound, the vocals in the guitar sounded like AC-DC to me. Caught in the middle, the intro was very AC-DC-like. Shame On The Night had this intro lick that was very bluesy, wasn't it? You'd imagine it coming from a classic rock band.
00:08:22
Speaker
In terms of the prog and classical, the song Rainbow in the Dark, I like this, I'm telling myself it's a homage to Rainbow, both in the name Rainbow in the Dark and with some of the instruments, because Rainbow were quite a heavy keyboard band, and the only main keyboard melody you get in this album is in Rainbow to the Dark, so I like thinking that's a little homage from Dio to Rainbow.
00:08:42
Speaker
And then a few little hints of classicalism, and I think whoever came up with this, maybe it was Jimmy Bayne, maybe it was Dio, they have to have looked at Richie Blackmore in Rainbow, because what Richie Blackmore did in Rainbow, go and check out our Rainbow Rising album review, is that he really bought the neoclassicalism back into Heavy Metal. And I think, don't talk to strangers, you've got that classical guitar at the start, or maybe it was a harpsichord. We listened to it, we couldn't figure it out, couldn't we?
00:09:08
Speaker
And then yeah, just about the album, you've got tiny little sprinklings of classical music, whether it's in the form of an intro or some guitar or a solo maybe.
Dio's Vocals and Theatrical Elements
00:09:19
Speaker
Let's now talk about Dio.
00:09:23
Speaker
I know. God amongst men. I know. He's become one of the biggest vocal inspirations of mine. I absolutely adore the guy. I think he's brilliant and he brought so much into metal vocals. And I know that so many current bands get inspired by Dio.
00:09:45
Speaker
And what I want to talk about is how complimentary and fundamental his vocal is to this music. He's got this really kind of distorted voice. He does. He's got the grit. He's got the energy, the power. And I think this is what's really, you know, this is what's so appealing to the genre as well. I think his notes are so operatic and clean. You wouldn't think distortion, but then when you get into it, you're right.
00:10:14
Speaker
because he does sort of distort a note, doesn't he? Yeah, he's got this grit, you know, it's just grit, it's gritty. And he's got this perfect vocal stamina. Okay, I'm going to technical problem vocals, but it is really, it's amazing. Hold on, it's an album about Dio, who's the greatest metal singer, you are allowed to go into detail. If I'm going into a bit more detail, I'd say that, you know, he's got really bright tone, it's just cut through.
00:10:43
Speaker
And he's very theatrical. He's a true performer and a storyteller. And I think even if you look at the lyrics that he writes, they are very, you know, they're special.
00:10:56
Speaker
He does what he wants, a fantasy element. We spoke on the Rainbow Rising video about that song, Stargazer, arguably being the first castle metal song, and we're getting more hints of it here with Holy Diver talking about fantasy, medieval, and mythological elements in his lyrics. Yeah, and this is what I'm trying to say about theatrical.
00:11:15
Speaker
you know definitely very theatrical and I love how this energy of his and this love for the music actually and for the genre it really comes across even if they're like just on the recordings on the album you know you you don't necessarily even have to watch the performance although please watch them they're brilliant but you can hear it you can really hear it and I think he's just yeah he's the greatest
00:11:41
Speaker
I think especially with this album, you've got lots of heavy metal bands where the vocalist is nice to listen to. I think especially in the first 10 or so years of metal,
00:11:55
Speaker
Predominantly, it wasn't. The vocals were nice to listen to. You think about Ozzy in Black Sabbath. You think about Paul Diano with Mayan Maiden. Lovely voices, but it's not, I don't want to say it's not nice to listen to, but you know what I mean? It's a little hard on the ear hearing Ozzy wailing in Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath, listening to Venom with that high-pitched scream that we love, but to others it might not be nice. But for Dino to come with
00:12:22
Speaker
and rainbow, but for him to establish his vocals and his sound in his debut album to this extent is phenomenal. I think he's just so sophisticated. Like his voice, it sounds so proper. I don't want to say that everyone else isn't proper. His diction, you've spoken about that before. It's so good. The way he pronounces words, you can hear everything he's saying. Great story test. The note doesn't suffer
00:12:49
Speaker
He's just phenomenal. Yeah, and it shouldn't really. He's a friend. And he's a friend.
Song Order and Listener Engagement
00:12:57
Speaker
So one last little bit I wanted to talk about before we get onto our opinions on the album is the structuring of it. And I mean literally the song orders, because what I found phenomenal about this is that I'm going to use the word glam. Remember what I said at the start of the video. I'm not saying it's a glam album, but the glammy song,
00:13:20
Speaker
glammy songs that entice the listener in, that keep them interested, that say to someone who's not a heavy metal fan, this is interesting. It's agreeable. It's pleasant to listen to. The chorus is great. I can sing along.
00:13:32
Speaker
They grab them with those first few songs. And then after that, you kind of descend into more niche and obscure heavy metal territory. Think about Shame on the Night. The last riff on Shame on the Night is not something that anyone who doesn't like metal would listen to. And so the fact that they've stuck that at the end and the other songs, you know, Invisible, Gypsy, Don't Talk to Strangers, they all come after that first barrage of accessible metal.
00:14:01
Speaker
And I just thought it was fantastic. You know, little things like little considerations like that is what make albums go from being a great album to a fantastic album, the flow of the songs and how they work. And I think it's just been masterfully done here. So we've gone through the nitty gritty details of the album. We've talked you through the styles, Dio's vocals and the song structures. And now we're going to talk about how much we like the album.
00:14:25
Speaker
Notice how I said how much we like it rather than whether we liked it or not and that kind of gives a hint, spoilers about it. So do you like the album? Yeah I like it a lot, I do. It's just absolutely brilliant and I think it's an essential metal album and I love the fact that ADO
00:14:45
Speaker
wrote all the lyrics I think that is so impressive and because they're great lyrics they're great stories you know within those songs and so interesting and I also I see it as like a collective effort to present to not present bringing so many other genres into this and make it a metal album
00:15:09
Speaker
Yeah, because it's not obvious, is it? They're not saying, okay, this song's going to be a rock song, this song's going to be a prog song. Yeah. They're just a little bit of everything in each song, pretty much. You know, there's just different stuff going on. And I find it so talented. It's such a talented approach to songwriting. And I think, think of it as 83, 1983, at the time, like that, that must have been just mind blowing to hear that at the time. I think it's actually brilliant. Yeah. What about you?
00:15:38
Speaker
How much do you like it? I think it's one of the most important albums in heavy metal. And the reason for this is that I've got a sort of theory about heavy metal as a sub-genre.
Conclusion and Audience Engagement
00:15:51
Speaker
So we can talk about heavy metal as a genre, next to pop, next to classical music, next to jazz. But when we're talking sub-genres of heavy metal, doom metal, thrash metal, new wave of British heavy metal, I consider heavy metal a sub-genre within itself. And for me, what this is,
00:16:07
Speaker
as a subgenre is taking all the elements of heavy metal that has come before and incorporating them, as you said in your little review, taking little pieces and putting them all together to form a new kind of heavy metal subgenre. And this is forever changing, you know, if we're using my idea of heavy metal as a subgenre, in the 70s it's Sabbath, in the 90s it's maybe Pantera or Metallica.
00:16:31
Speaker
in the 2000s for me it's bands like Mastodon and Gogera taking everything that we've learned about heavy metal from previous decades and moulding it into one and for me as of 1983 this is the purest form of heavy
00:16:48
Speaker
Because as you mentioned, and as you've said throughout the whole video, we've got little elements of each of these styles, but they're not saying, here's a prog song, here's a classical section. It's just heavy metal. I can't say that any other way. And despite the heaviness of the music, the whole album has such an agreeable and welcoming sound, as I said from the start. And as Glam sort of started to thrive in the early 80s and began opening up metal to wider audiences, specifically in America,
00:17:18
Speaker
We've got to thank this kind of album for playing on the agreeableness, for playing on the consonants and the pleasant sounds, but also underlying it with the traditional metal values with the incredible voice of Ronnie James Dio leading the way. Thank you so much for watching this video, you guys. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. And please let us know in the comments below, do you think that Holy Diver is Dio's best work?
00:17:47
Speaker
Is it better than his time of Sabbath and Rainbow? What do you think? Let us know in the comments. Yeah, I'm a little biased. I love Rainbow Rising, so I don't know if I can agree with that, but I have no arguments anyway. But yeah, thank you guys. Please don't forget to hit like on this video. Subscribe to the channel to come back for more of these classic album reviews, as well as all the other stuff we do.
00:18:07
Speaker
and don't forget we've got a dedicated podcast so if you don't have time to sit and watch these videos the audio is taken from these videos and uploaded to the podcast and you can listen on Apple, Spotify and Amazon. So thanks again for joining us and have a metal day. Have a lovely day, we'll see you very soon.