Customer Reviews

Diamonds: Best Of Dio (Germany)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have owned this 2 or 3 times now The first time I bought it in 1993 I purchased it to get a taste of the music before I went out to buy any of the albums. This cd covers the years 1983-1990 (Holy Diver through Lock up the wolves) and it is a good place to start if you are unfamiliar with Dio's solo work. There is only one non album track on here and its Hide in the Rainbow (great song) I think it was exclusively recorded for the film Iron Eagle and before this compilation was released the soundtrack was the only other place to find the song (The song Hide in the rainbow has not appeared on any other Dio compilation to my knowledge at least.) I really like the song All the fools sailed away from the album Dream Evil and its not included on this complation but I'm not too worried because I have the song on the cd. As I previously mentioned this a good place to start if you don't know too much about Dio's solo work (I have seen the double disc best of that was released recently but it covered too much for my liking) shop around though I have seen this elsewhere cheaper.

As most of you know, there are two versions of a Dio's "Greatest Hits" album available. The first one is "Diamonds: The Best of Dio" and the second is "The Very Beast Of Dio". If your a casual Dio fan, I would recommend going for "The Very Beast Of Dio" over "Diamonds" because it contains more tracks (16 to "Diamonds" 13) and a better selection of his classic tunes. "Diamonds" however would be a better selection for the Die-Hard Dio fan for one reason, Hide in the Rainbow. Yes "Diamonds" contains the ultra rare track Hide in the Rainbow that was previously only available on the Iron Eagle soundtrack, and who really wants to own the Iron Eagle soundtrack? The movie was bad and having the soundtrack in you collection would make you a laughing stock. Now here is your chance to owning "Hide in the Rainbow" without being laughed at. The song is worth the price of this CD and plus you'll add another cool Dio CD cover to your collection. So die-hard Dio fans, pick this CD up today!

Great Best of CD, If you have not heard so much of DIO this is a great start. Great Metal Diamonds from one of hard rocks best singers.

Diamonds. All the songs here are great ! In my opinion,Ronnie James Dio is one of the few "Professionals" in Heavy metal, One of three singers in Heavy Metal history that can write and sing songs equally well, the other two being Rob Halford(Priest) and Bruce Dickinson(Maiden). The man is very unique in his song-writing and singing and it shows in this album. This album is truly of very high quality, lyrically and musically, as are Dio's albums that these songs are originally from . BUY IT !! You will be mighty proud of it. It is going to stand out like a DIAMOND in your music collection (heavy-metal or otherwise).

A great collection of Dio's best songs up until 1990. This truly displays his awesome voice and lyrical romanticism that are his trade mark even in his recent material. With a little bit of Rainbow and little Black Sabbath, Dio creates his own powerful style true to his past and innovative for his present. For the fan that isn't familiar with Ronnie James Dio this is probably the best way to sample his best songs. From the stirring intro of "Holy Diver" to the last power chords of "Lock Up The Wolves" this is truly a true testament to Dio the visionary of what I like to call "Fantasy Metal". He was still on top of his game, as anyone who listened to last years Heaven and Hell studio debut will know. I'd say as far as technique and power goes, Ronnie was perhaps the best Hard Rock singer we've seen, and this compilation is excellent evidence of that. It's worth buying just for Holy Diver, The Last in Line and Rainbow in the Dark alone, but on top of that you get a dozen other mostly excellent rock songs. What interests me about this cd other than rjd's phenomenal voice, and the excellent musicianship, is that you can really see how Ronnies compositional ideas which have influenced other musicians. Anyway this is a great German import best of album which I highly recommend to metal fans, I got this cd last year whilst on vacation in France and I've been rocking out to it ever since, check it out.

These are the highlights of a time when Ronnie James Dio could not go wrong. classic heavy metal excellence done by arguably the leader of the genre. I cannot say that this is an exhaustive 'best of' compilation because Dio's best cannot be reunited on less then a 4 (fully loaded) cd's compilation. if you cast aside the horribly done imagery and just focus on the music and Dio's very own trippy and abstract lyrics, you will be more than satisfied with this man's music. enjoy!

Bought this CD after not having listened to Dio for a while (The rest of my Dio-collection consists of vinyl records), and I must say, there was pleasant sounds in my living room! Of course, there was nostalgy involved, but the music in itself rocks too. One or two more songs from the Dream Evil-album, and I would have given 5 stars.

Ronnie James Dio's career spans 3 groups and 3 decades. His solo projects as "Dio" which should be considered his 4th band were excellent quality rock. Reflected in these songs are his ties with rock greats Richie Blackmore, Tony Iomie, and others. But his early work with Elf is lost because his folk-blues style did not make RJD famous. It is ashame that works with "Rainbow" and "Black Sabbath" were not included on this package. But maybe we will see that in a Box Set later... pick this one up if your a Dio Fan it is a great add to any rock library. For more rare music visit Nakedsounds.