Customer Reviews

Dio Anthology: Stand Up & Shout

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

What an amazing collection! And appropriate. Are there certain songs I'd rather have seen included? Of course! But that's not a slam on the product. Rather, Ronnie has such a deep catalogue of great music I believe everyone has a song or two they would have inserted if possible. Hopefully this will sell REALLY well (that's a hint folks) and a boxed set will follow.

Did I mention Dio is the best there was, the best there is, and the best there ever will be?

Hey I'm with the other reviewers in feeling some songs should have been included here rather than others(i.e.Mystery,Rock n'Roll Children) but overall it is a pretty great disc. You get "man on the Silver Mountain","Heaven and Hell" and a good collection from "Holy Diver" on two CDs. Short of buying the upcoming boxed set where else can you get this overview from a great career. I think with most anthologies people tend to focus on what is missing rather than what is included. This set smokes from the begining to the end(even though I am not much of an ELF fan). I highly recommend this album to anyone who is interested in sampling one the great heavy metal masters. I know you will want to buy the complete albums from DIO.

All smoke, No mirrors!

First of all, this would be 5 stars, but I having just got The Very Beast of Dio not that long ago... well, there's a lot of Dio collections out there already, but this is very excellent!

I will go over the packaging first. It, like a lot of releases these days, is cardboard. The liner notes are very well done, provide a nice overview/commentary on Dio's career, which you probably already know all about. That's not the highlight though, the highlight is Dio's track-by-track commentary. Sure some of these things have been said, but it's really nice to read his own thoughts about the tracks while you're listening to them. There are a lot of nice photos in the notes. Very Beast's notes don't even compare!

The content... this is the first Dio anthology to contain his Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, and solo releases. You will notice however this release does not cover any of his work after he left Warner Bros. (the first album away was Angry Machines.) This is unfortunate, because there are a lot of good tracks off the four albums he's released since.

The quality of the songs is by the far best. The remasters are very nice, and since I don't yet have all the Castle remasters for Sabbath, even better. Originally I was hoping this release would contain bonus stuff, like unreleased live tracks, or other songs (like the other song from Lock up the Wolves that wasn't on the studio release.) The release does contain some live songs Voodoo by Black Sabbath (off of Live Evil, the end banter is cut off, but that's probably because Dio is introducing the next song, which of course, isn't included on this release.) The song "Sacred Heart" is also live on here, and it's from Intermission.

Overall this is a very good collection, right up there with the recent release of Sympton of the Universe: The Original Black Sabbath, which was also released by Warner, so if you have that, you can expect about the same (not quite as massive liner notes however.)

If you've never listened to Dio, you should pick this up immediately! If you're just a casual fan and arleady have some of his albums, or other greatest hits collection than this isn't for you, but I'm sure the big Dio fans (like me) won't have a hard time enjoying this new collection!

If you're a hardcore Dio fan, then you have all of this material. However, if you don't, it's a worthy pickup, as it covers from Dio's pre solo days in Elf, Rainbow, & Black Sabbath, as well as his Dio material (although it doesn't cover the last 3 studio albums, as they were on a different record label). Still, it's a nice cross section of Dio's career (his first album came out in 1958!) and while this doesn't go back that far, it's something worthy to have if you don't already have all of his albums.

Great liner notes, too, as Ronnie has a paragraph or so to say about every track on here. He even says that one of my personal favorite Sabbath songs isn't one of his favorites (damn <g>).

Would be nice to see one of these things that cover his pre-Elf material (Ronnie & The Redcaps, Ronnie & The Rumblers, The Electric Elves, etc). But as it stands this is a great package that covers the majority of his career.

I was impressed when i first got this 2-disc set. When i looked at track listing, i was very glad that they included some songs from his ELF albums. ELF isn't really heavy metal at all, it's just bluesy-boogie style rock, and tends to get overlooked in favor of his later work w/ Rainbow and Black Sabbath. Disc 1 is actually my favorite of the 2, it covers ELF, Rainbow and Black Sabbath all on one convient little disc and shows Ronnies progression thru all of his differant musical careers.

Disc-2 is essentially "The Very Beast of" with a couple songs added on (but what happened to "Mystery"?), nothing new or special at all. The liner notes are very well written and the packaging is beautifully illustrated. You learn lot about how some of these very famous songs were written or where the idea came for them as told by Ronnie James Dio himself. This whole release was a very well thought out idea.

I wish they had included "Stargazer", the definative song he wrote w/ Rainbow, how could they skip this? Disc-1 has too many tracks devoted too Sabbath and not enough for Rainbow, i could of done with out the "Dehumanizer" song and the live version of "Voodoo", they could of replaced them with songs like "Kill the King" and "16th Century Greensleeves".

Oh yeah, WHY isn't "Stars" on this thing? that single is a important landmark in Dio's career, this is supposed to cover the mans WHOLE recording career, right? Well, i guess you can only fit so much on these anyway (80 minutes per disc), but overall it is a solid 4 star collection of Dio tunes.

This is a nicely packaged and pretty good greatest hits/retrospective on the Hard Rock/Metal career of the great Ronnie James Dio. The two disc set covers the man's career from his stint in Elf to the pre-Power Metal of Rainbow, through the brilliant Black Sabbath years and onto his own succesful solo career.
It's not really bad, though the only interest to collector's may be the inclusion of the rarely heard Elf tracks of which there are three:Carlolina County ball, I'm Coming back to you and Hoochie Koochie Lady. These are really expendable tracks however since they do not properly illustrate the Dio sound and may be turn off to young Metalheads discovering his music.

The Rainbow selections are very poor and that's a shame considering he was the best singer that band ever had and delivered some of his best songs ever. The three chosen from his three studio albums with the band are the obvious, "Man on the Silver Mountain","Starstruck" and "Long Live Rock and Roll". It was just ludicrous to eliminate such Dio-essentials such as "Stargazer"(possibly his best work),"Gates of Babylon" and "Kill the King". These rank among the greatest metal songs ever and better represent his growth as an artist.

Black Sabbath is very well represented featuring all of the well known classics he made with the band over three albums. However, it is disheartening not to see the classics "Die Young" or "Falling off the Edge of the World" and especially when there replaced by a single LIVE Dio track at the end of "Sacred Heart"! That was a major mis-step, actually.

The second disc is dedicated to his solo career and features many of his best tracks, though "Rock and Roll Children" is a curious omission, as are "Shame on the Night", "Sunset Superman" and "Pain". "Lock Up the Wolves" was a weak album and hardly even had to be represented and certainly, "King of Rock and Roll" was rather expendable.

Still, the sound quality is nice, the cover design is fine and there are liner notes from the man himself, so a beginner Metalhead could do alot worse. That does not mean however to skip on the man's essential albums.
"Rising" by Rainbow, "Heaven and Hell" by Black Sabbath and "Holy Diver" By Dio are still integral parts of ANY heavy Metal library.

As small as Ronnie James Dio is, he stands like a collossus amidst the rock Gods. This double set is one of two great collections from his early days up till fairly recent times. Whilst you can see the transition, or I should say hear, but DIO is just so evocative that you will get the picture, the transition from Straight up rock to the style of music that only this man with the magical voice has. He has a great voice in 70s material, and his vocal chords are still some of the best set still into the next Millenia. A true testament that pesistence and skill with ability to deliver, can provide quality material.

This collection, spanning the entire(?) career of Ronald Padavona (Ronnie James Dio) showcases the powerful vocals (first present in ELF, who I got to see in 1975, when they first toured with Deep Purple, and stopped in St. Louis, MO; through the days with Rainbow, and Black Sabbath, as well as his master solo career, from the molten metal classic Holy Diver, to Strange Highways, this unique rock personality showcases some powerhouse songs, such as The Last In Line, We Rock, Carolina County Ball (not metal, but pretty damn good rock), and many others. Can't wait until volume 2 is compiled. [I own all of the individual solo work, as it's well worth it for the material not included on this collection.] Congratulations to Rhino, for finally giving this underrated singer his due. Also recommended, Rainbow's Anthology, Catch The Rainbow, see in a future review.
Peace, Love, and Magic.

First off, DIO Rules! By far my favorite band of all time. The compilation is comprehensive of Ronnie's material throughout his entire career. Three criticisms though. For one, I agree that Time Machine was the only good song off Dehumanizer, who picked the other tune? Secondly, I'm disappointed with the choice of Hungry For Heaven (Live). It's a great song and great live, but has appeared on other albums. I can't believe their aren't tons of other live tunes we haven't heard that they could have put on this album instead. Three, this came out after Killing the Dragon. It's his 3rd best album since forming his own band (next to Holy Diver and Last in Line). It's even mentioned in the insert how great the new Dragon album is and how he is getting back to his metal roots, but nothing on this compilation CD set. Overall, this is must have for any Dio fan. I'm looking forward to many more years of new DIO material.

This is a so-so collection of Dio music. For a new listener who wants something to pick up, it's alright in the sense that it will give you strong desires to go get the original albums.

The Elf material is good because it's rare - good old time blues rock. Nice hearing Dio plant his foundations as a metal singer here.

The Rainbow material is the weakest on the album. Man On The Silver Mountain is a classic song, sure, but there are SO many better Rainbow songs than Long Live Rock & Roll and Starstruck. I would have preferred to see Catch The Rainbow, Temple Of The King, and Stargazer. Don't be dissuaded by these songs - Dio's stint with Rainbow was some of his best work ever. Ritchie Blackmore is as good a guitarist as any Dio ever played with. Go get Rainbow's "Live On Stage" if you don't believe me.

The Sabbath material RULES - all the epic hits are here. Perfect selection. I only wish they had given us a live version of Heaven & Hell.

As to the Dio solo stuff, it is a good group also. I would have liked to see Sunset Superman, Night People, This Is Your Life, and some cuts from Magica - that album is awesome. But these songs are great - Holy Diver, Sacred Heart, Rainbow In The Dark, Dream Evil, All The Fools Sailed Away, Egypt - all the classics are here. Solid melodic metal at its best.

As I said at the get go - this is a fine collection for the curious new Dio fan to pick up, but it can only feed the fire of desire for more.