Customer Reviews

Evil Or Divine

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I guess this disc is supposed to serve as an audio souvenir of the tour Dio did in 2002 as opener for Deep Purple and the Scorpions.Only drawback for me is I wasn't there.'Evil Or Divine' is most certainly my kind of live CD.Has fifteen tracks while clocking in at 79:19.Sound quality is superb and the setlist is pretty good too.A couple of tunes I haven't heard Dio play live in awhile are "Egypt"(from 'Last In Line')and "Children Of The Sea"(off Sabbath's 'Heaven&Hell').Several new/er cuts I'm hearing here for the very first time were "Killing The Dragon","Push" and "Fever Dreams".I haven't heard the last two Dio studio releases.As for the standards,I always like reliving "Stand Up And Shout","Man On A Silver Mountain","Holy Diver","Rainbow In The Dark" and their anthem "We Rock" again.Line-up:Ronnie James Dio-vocals,Doug Aldrich-guitar,Jimmy Bain-bass,Scott Warren-keyboards and Simon Uright-drums.Recommended.Will appeal to fans of Black Sabbath,Rainbow,Elf and Deep Purple.Wanted to mention that in the past umpteen years,I've heard close to a dozen Dio bootlegs and I STILL thought this CD was well worth picking up a copy of.

This is one of the very best live concerts from Dio that I have ever heard!! The track list is the best, some from the older ablums which almost all dio fans including myself love and some from the new like killing the dragon. The recording of this concert is great, nice high levels without distorting and not to low, you can hear all of the players!!! And to make this live preformace even better we have a awesome guitarist Doug Aldrich!! I have been playing guitar for about 14 years and try to follow all the greats, malmsteen, vai, greg howe, petrucci, satriani, ects, I feel that this is the best guitar player Dio has ever had, the licks, riffs, chops Doug can make are awesome, a nice full bodied sound, one of the best guitar players!! a really great live cd!!!! Buy it now you won't be sorry!!!!

First off i would like to correct Mike Reed this live cd came out to after his fall/winter 2004 us tour i was at the show before this one and i have heard this live cd and remember the show and it was amazing for his age he can still belt out classics like holy diver, egypt, heaven and hell, silver mountain, and sign of the southern croos which isn't on this cd, but was amazing and done to perfection on the night i saw him. rudy, simon, scott, and doug are probably the next best line up other thant he original line up of holy diver and last in line. so in the end i think this live disc just brings back the image of this 15 year old kid(me) and his dad moshing

but the DVD is better. The mixing is good... could have used a little more crowd noise though. I'm sure I'm being biased since I already had the DVD & am unfairly comparing it to just the disc, but you can't really feel the crowd on the CD.

This is a very solid live album with truly great performances from RJD and the band. Recorded on the "Killing the Dragon" tour, guitarist Doug Aldrich adds some serious fire and intensity to these already classic songs. Ronnie's voice is in fine form. He hits all the high notes, and adds some great improvised runs as always. They've added a great ending to the song "Killing the Dragon": the way Ronnie sings "...the dragon again..." at the very end really brings the song to a higher level for me, and makes this disc a must-own. I also prefer the live version of "Rock and Roll" on this disc to the studio version, as Ronnie adds some really nice little improvised runs here and there. Jimmy Bain and Simon Wright are locked in so tight that they really add to the heaviness of the songs. The only disappointing part of this disc is a lackluster performance of "Fever Dreams", which is one of my favorite Dio songs of all time. I was really looking forward to hearing a live version of this song, but they play it too fast, and Doug's solo just seems like a cheap immitation of Craig Goldie's superbly crafted solo on the original studio version. They also play "Man on the Silver Mountain" too fast, but Dio's been playing it too fast for 20 years so I'm over it. (Check out "Holy Diver Live" for a great version of "MotSM" played at the original speed!) This isn't a perfect live album, but it's definitely better than "Inferno" and "Intermission", and covers all the classics better than "Holy Diver Live", so "Evil or Divine" will probably go down as the quintessential Dio live album.

This is a great live cd probally one of the best ever. Dio gives a flawless performance with tunes from his Rainbow days, his Sabbath Days , and all the DIO fav's up to killing the dragon. Amazing album get this one now!

The Good
Now I've seen the DVD and I was at the live show the night after the New York date, so I am very familiar with this performance. This particular Dio line-up was unbelievable live. The band has great chemistry together; Doug is mesmerizing on the guitar, and after all these years Ronnie's voice still holds up as one of the most dominant in heavy metal. The bulk of the set is comprised of three of Dio's most significant albums. The group blazes through three songs from the album they were supporting Killing the Dragon; "Killing the Dragon", "Push", and "Rock & Roll".

All the hits from Holy Diver are delivered to near perfection; "Stand Up & Shout", "Holy Diver", "Don't Talk to Strangers", and "Rainbow in the Dark". So are the hits from Last in Line; "We Rock", "Egypt", and "Last In Line". Dio and the gang also explore faster versions of the hits from his Rainbow days; "Man on the Silver Mountain" and Long Live Rock & Roll, as well as his days in Black Sabbath; "Heaven & Hell" & "Children of the Sea". I'm dying for re-masters of Sabbath's Dio years. There's a "Guitar Solo" track that's sure to blow your socks off.

The Bad
It's a little strange that the companion CD is coming out almost a year later than the DVD. I would rather have them packaged together. While I'm at it, Dio's worth of a double CD live set. Five albums are overlooked with this set.

The Verdict
The answer is...Divine!

Reviewed in three areas: sound production, quality of performances, and set list.

The sound production on this particular release is just as good the Dio "Last in Live" (which is really saying something). It has a slightly different sound but is equally good, all musicians are mixed together well and the sound is loud and crisp.

Doug Aldrich is the guitarist. For classic metal he is currently the best guitarist out there who is actually still willingly to play it. It seems that Viv Campbell has taken a turn for the worse in what he's doing with Def Leppard, but Aldrich plays the old Campbell tunes to the same level. I understand as of 2005, Aldrich is with the new incarnation of Coverdale's Whitesnake. He certainly sounds better than the comparatively sloppy play offered by Tracy G on "Inferno: Last n Live". The absence of Vinny Appice is apparent, but former ACDC man Simon Wright does well on the skins. Jimmy Bain and Scott Warren sound great, also. The only problem is that Dio does not do as well on the older tunes as he does on the new ones from Killing the Dragon or Magica. He is obviously getting old (now in his 60's) and I take off a star for the reason that his voice begins to fail him about half way through the concert. It would have been wiser to have some backing vocals on the chorus for "Last in Line" and others.

The set list is terrific. Less Sabbath tunes, more Dio. Way to go.

Final analysis:

Sound Production: 10/10

Performance of Songs: 7.5/10 (only because Dio begins to lose his voice on some of the classics and He sings Holy Diver in a "choppy" way that ruins it).

Set List: 9/10

Excellent footage of the band. It was recorded in 2002 during a concert supporting the "Killing the Dragon" album.
The band is solid, the solos are very fluid, courtesy of the great Doug Adrich and the audience is in high energy. In all, the band is tight and both the new material and the classic tunes shine.
If you are a fan of the late great Ronnie James Dio get this album. You won't be disappointed.
RIP Ronnie!

A nice setlist here of modern Dio, a bunch of classics featured here, plus a couple of my recent favs in "Push", and "Fever Dreams".

Very long guitar solo is a nice inclusion near the middle, and of course a bunch of classics like mentioned in "Rainbow In The Dark", "Holy Diver" (great version of that one here also), and probably my all time fav Dio song "The Last In Line" which is my fav version of this one also, perhaps you will never, never, never-never, never-never, never-never want to hear the studio version again..just kidding, but I love that part of the song.

Great CD of Live Dio still going strong, still sounds like he's got the same fire he had years ago as he belts out song after song and puts as much effort into the new ones as he does the classics. This is a hard rock/metal arena rock of old...sizzling guitars, solo's extended and featured throughout, and anthems pummeling you one after another. Dio will never be outdated, these songs are timeless classics in the hard rock/metal genre that probably wouldn't go over today with the music buying public for the most part feeling they are too smart to absord such simple pleasures and primal feeling of gasp..."joy" to rock. We listen to this to celebrate life, and if we are down ...it makes us feel better, no matter how silly you all think it is, we rock!