4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hail to the King!, July 8, 2004
This review is from: Holy Dio - A Tribute To the Voice Of Metal : Ronnie-James Dio (Audio CD)
I know tribute albums are a dime a dozen these days, and most of them are just not worth it, but every once in a while you come across a real winner. Holy Dio is perhaps the best tribute album ever. Instead of the usual cast of unemployed 80's metallers giving halfhearted performances (Paul Di'Anno and Steve Grimmet, I'm talking to you!), Holy Dio is chock full of A-list metal bands paying tribute to the mighty Ronnie James Dio.
Most of the bands on this album are traditional metal and power metal bands, but that is a given considering Dio's influence on that genre. The bands cover classic songs from Black Sabbath, Rainbow, and Dio, and do so with lots of style and energy. I'm sure it's blasphemous to say this, but Blind Guardian's version of "Don't Talk to Strangers" might just be better than the original!
This excellent (and much deserved) tribute to Dio is a must-have for Dio fans, power metal fans, and just metal fans in general. Some of these covers have appeared elsewhere, but having them all collected in one package (with terrific cover artwork, too) makes Holy Dio a great compilation.
Edition Notes: The single-disc version of Holy Dio features covers by Steel Prophet, Hammerfall, Destiny's End, Fates Warning, Gamma Ray, Doro, Jag Panzer, Blind Guardian, Axel Rudi Pell, Primal Fear, Solitude Aeturnus, Enola Gay, Angel Dust and Catch the Rainbow. There is also a 2-disc version that adds covers by Dan Swano, Yngwie Malmsteen, Grave Digger, Holy Mother and Stratovarius. If at all possible, you should try and track down the 2-disc version.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
5-star for sure, April 15, 2010
This review is from: Holy Dio - A Tribute To the Voice Of Metal : Ronnie-James Dio (Audio CD)
This collection is about the clearest 5-star rater I have seen in years.
Top artists, top recording. There are guitar sounds on here that I haven't heard anywhere else. Fates Warning, Swino/Tgtgren and Primal Fear particularly shine.
Be sure to get the 2-CD version! It seems there is a 1-CD version floating around where we Americans get protected from music we won't like. But it is missing "Country Girl" which is one of the best works on here.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Tough job, February 25, 2009
This review is from: Holy Dio - A Tribute To the Voice Of Metal : Ronnie-James Dio (Audio CD)
Talk about an ambitious project, trying to cover the music of the God of rock is not something that anyone can do. These bands really do a pretty good job. Holy Mother covered the Holy Grail of rock in Holy Diver and Holy crap did they nail it. I like every track because they are after all Dio songs, but I thought Egypt and Country Girl were done to the point where you could almost say they were within the bottom 10% of Dio standards. You could have Hanson, Color Me Badd and Aaron Carter cover Dio songs and they would be tolerable because even they couldn't totally screw up a Dio song, but they will never be close to Dio. I'm not even close to Dio and that is saying a lot. Burns and J-abs have Dio qualities, but they are not Dio either.
Dio sets a standard you as the reader have no chance of achieving. Sure, you may sit in your basement, give yourself a receding hairline and scream into your microphone, but you are not Dio. You still have a part time jobs at Burger King and your manager yells at you because you can't figure out the fry cooker. Just take Dio for what he is, a mark you can't achieve. These artists try, but it's freakin Dio.
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