Customer Reviews

Lock up the Wolves

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This album is as good as Holy Diver, Last In Line, Dream Evil and Sacred Heart. The slow songs are great and the faster power metal songs are great too. Ronnie's voice has never been better and Rowan Robertson is as good if not better than any other Dio guitarist. Robertson was only 16 but his riffs and solos are amazing. The best songs are Born On The Sun, Lock Up The Wolves, Walk On water, Why Are They Watching Me and My Eyes. Every song on this album is worth listening too. If you like Dio's other albums or good metal music in general than buy this album.

This was the first dio album i ever heard, didnt like it much the first time but i started giving it a better chance and now i find it to be incredible. Dio didnt fire his other musicians just wanted to try a different type of metal album and it worked. Picked up Simon Wright who is an awesome drummer, did superb on this one. Jens Johenson very good keyboardist well when u get to hear him do some of his work anyway. Teddy Cook a terrific bassist almost a young jimmy bain feel. Rowan Robertson simply an awesome guitarist to heavy distorted rythm, classy acoustic and top notch solos, and only being 18 at the time thats awesome. Dio singing his heart out as always is in top form.

Wild One-fast raw and exciting tune, incredibly done, definite 80's dio feel.
Born on the Sun-continuing from wild one this is an awesome trac, the closing and the chorus is superb.
Hey Angel-cool song, the opening rythm guitar is awesome.

Between 2 Hearts-great song, the smooth acoustic,clean electric guitar together is fabulous, very deep song, superb lyrics.
Night Music-great one this one, excellent beat, awesome lyrics.
Lock up the Wolves-great long slow song, longest song dio ever wrote. Abt armageddon in the book of revelation he quotes a great standard from the bible in this one.
Evil on Queen Street-Cool opening, pretty smooth song.
Walk on Water-Awesome fast paced tune, awesome solo and lyrics as always.

Twisted-Average opening, yet the solo is awesome, just listen.
Why are they Watching me-opening of keyboards rocks, very creepy, this is a metal classic.
My Eyes-Just listen to it isnt this great, the acoustic guitar opening is spectacular, some incredible lyrics too.

Well enough said awesome album if ur a dio fan then get this one, even if u dont like it the first time u hear it, give it a better chance and u should appreciate it. Long live Rock&Roll!!!

This CD really ROCKS!!! Whatever others say, this guitarist (Rowan Robertson) is amazing, and it's a pity that he didn't appear anywhere else... All songs are going deep into the memory, especially the title track. And the wolf howl made by Rowan is just chilling! The tempo of all songs is different, so listening doesn't tiresome you and you can listen to the whole album "at one breath". Definitely the BEST album by Dio!

In 1990 the art form known as "metal" was quickly being shown the exit from popular tastes. Dio, a looooong-time vet of rock, decided to reach back into his history and come up with a very bluesy, slower-paced album. Nothing can ever match the perfection of his first two solo albums (Holy Diver and Last in Line) although the first Sab-Dio album (Heaven and Hell) comes mighty close. If you're "new" to Dio get those, but Wolves is in my opinion an underrated classic of progressive (or possibly regressive) hard rock. After getting too soft and trying with little success for a hit single (Hungry for Heaven) with Sacred Heart and returning to metal form with Dream Evil, Dio comes up with a superb album for the traditionalists -- this one -- before returning to Sabbath (where he released a very thrashy album in '92) and then coming up with the Dio band's much more industrial, buzzy, sonic-assault approach of the Highways and Machines albums. For dedicated headbangers, this record will seem slow, dottering, and under-energized, but if you like Dio's older material and can handle songs with a blues flavor you're in for a treat. Some of Ronnie's best vocals in years, and the kid on guitar can not only shred but can play more deliberately, with a very Johnny Winter-like feel at times.

"Lock Up the Wolves" is probably my second favorite Dio album. It did not sell that well, got little or no radio airplay, but is his strongest work since leaving Black Sabbath in my opinion. The original Dio band is long gone by this point with only Ronnie himself remaining. Dio brings in a young 18 year old guitarist named Rowan Robertson to fill the guitar duties and he does so admirably. Former AC/DC skinsman Simon Wright is on drums, and Swedish prog keyboard maestro Jens Johansson (Stradivarius, Mastermind) is also on hand along with bassist Teddy Cook. This is the first Dio album to feature a truly great keyboard player and for me at least, the difference is humungous. The keys are still mostly in the background, but what Johansson does would be missed if it was not there. Much of this album is slow and brooding which makes it in my opinion the most Sabbath like of any of Dio's solo discs. Pretty much every song on the album is good and many of them are great. One of my favorite all time Dio songs closes out the album. "My Eyes" is a reflection on his career up to that point as he references Rainbow and Sabbath in a weary look back in time. The single and opening track "Wild One" is a rocker that ranks up with the hardest and fastest music Dio has done. "Born On The Sun", "Night Music" , "Between Two Hearts", "Lock Up The Wolves", "Evil On Queen Street", "Walk On Water", man they are all great tunes. Dio's vocals are in top form throughout and even most of his lyrics are well thought out and meaningful. I actually rank this album better than all of his 80's output. Many Dio fans won't agree with that assessment, but I think this is by far his most underrated album.

This album is awesome musically and a great acheivement by all the musicians involved but the songs are just too slow. Only three songs 'Wild one', 'Walk on water' and 'Why are they watching me' are what couild be described as 'upbeat'. Every songs is superbly written, all the musicians play very well, Ronnie James Dio is on top form but most of the songs are very slow. If the band were to re-record this album, my advice would be for the band members to drink lots of black coffee and take lots of caffine tablets to speed them up a bit ('I am Cornhol(D)io, I need T(em)P(o) for my (al)bum-hole!' - Sorry I know that was an awful joke but I couldn't resist it.).

This is a great album but it is sssssssssssoooooooo ssssssssslllllloooooooowwwwwwww I had to deduct a star. Dio fans and metal fans in general will enjoy this music.

Lock Up the Wolves is the one Dio album I have that I always seem to forget about. It followed Dio's zenith 1987 masterpiece Dream Evil and came out on the cusp of the 1990s where metal (including Dio) unfortunately suffered a decline in popularity and quality. I listen to it off and on when I think about cleaning out my music collection, and always end up keeping it. Recently, I gave it a spin again and realized why I kept it for so long. This album is solid. There are tracks on here that blow me away. One of them is "Hey Angel." It is an amazing track! One of Dio's best! It is slow but with strong emotion. Very powerful! "Between Two Hearts" is also very nice with a slow intro and beautiful guitar. I also like the guitar in "Night Music." Speaking of guitar, the lead guitarist here (Rowan Robertson) was only 18 at the time! Another highlight is "Born on the Sun." The title track is pounding! The single from this album was "Wild One" which really rocks out. It is not one of Dio's best, but it kicks. Lock Up the Wolves is no Holy Diver or Dream Evil, but it is a solid metal album in its own right and is very underrated. It is also the first Dio album with 10 instead of 9 tracks and this CD even offers an 11th track that I don't have: "Why are They Watching Me." You get your money's worth here! BTW: If you want to hear an amazing metal album from the 1990s Metal "dark ages," check out Dio's brief return to Black Sabbath on the CD Dehumanizer. It is awesome!

The first album of Dio that I heard was this one. The first song(wild one) was very good, 'Born on the Sun' and 'Hey Angel' are good to. After those three there are some avarage songs. Songs like 'Between to Hearts', 'Night Music' and 'Evil on Queen Street. After that you get a great song called 'Walk on Water'. The songs after 'Walk on Water' are pretty good to. With this album I did not get the idee that Dio was so good, but when I listened to other albums, Dio became one of my favorite hardrock bands. This album is okay, but certainly not one of the best. If you wanna learn to know Dio, you must start with some other albums of Dio. I do recommend this album if you know Dio and like his music, but if you are not a fan, you should buy another album of this band.

I agree with some of the other reviews on the point that Dio takes a few steps away from the darker themes and groove, which prevail on other recordings. Here, he creates a an album of Dark, Blues Rock.

The writing is great! The majority of these tunes are all very good. But the most important point to make is that unlike other albums where Dio sings with more rasp and lower - mid range, here you hear the full capabilities of Dio's vocal skills.

Here you will find range and clarity of tone. Not too different then his best work when he was with Rainbow.

If you like good vocals, this is the best overall album offered by this veteran metal singer.

I was surprised to see so many praise reviews of this. Most of the time people slam it, saying it's too slow moving. Ronnie James Dio took the Dio sound to a different level on this one: killer Dio sound, with a gothic, bluesy sound to it. Real low- down and dirty sounding, I thought. Favorite picks on this are the whole album! Killer sound that would surface again on Killing The Dragon. Don't miss out on this one Dio Fans! ***** 5 STAR WOLF RATING! Cheers from Scraggy's Tomb!