Holy Diver

For other uses, see Holy Diver (disambiguation).
Holy Diver
Studio album by Dio
Released May 25, 1983
Recorded Sound City Studios, Van Nuys, California, 1983
Genre Heavy metal
Length 41:36
Label Warner Bros. (North America)
Vertigo (UK)
Mercury (Europe and Japan)
Producer Ronnie James Dio
Dio chronology
Holy Diver
(1983)		 The Last in Line
(1984)
Ronnie James Dio chronology
Live Evil
(1982)		 Holy Diver
(1983)		 The Last in Line
(1984)
Singles from Holy Diver
  1. "Holy Diver"
    Released: August 1983
  2. "Rainbow in the Dark" / "Gypsy"
    Released: October 1983

Holy Diver is the debut album by American heavy metal band Dio, released in 1983. Vocalist Ronnie James Dio had just finished his first tenure in Black Sabbath, whose drummer Vinny Appice he took with him to put together his own band. The roster was completed by his former band mate in Rainbow Jimmy Bain on bass and by the young guitarist Vivian Campbell, coming from the NWOBHM band Sweet Savage. The album was acclaimed by the music press and is the most successful of the band.

History

Released on May 25, 1983, the album has been hailed by critics as Dio's best work and a classic staple in the heavy metal genre.[1][2] The album was certified Gold in the US on September 12, 1984, and Platinum on March 21, 1989.[3] In the UK it attained Silver certification (60,000 units sold) by the British Phonographic Industry, achieving this in January 1986, at the same time as The Last in Line.[4]

The original vinyl release had a photo-montage LP-liner, with images from both Rainbow and Black Sabbath days.

The album was remastered and re-released by Rock Candy Records in 2005. The only notable addition to the original album is an audio interview with Ronnie James Dio. Tracks 10-19 on the 2005 edition are Dio's answers to various questions about the album. The questions are not posed during the interview itself, but can be found inside the CD's booklet instead. The album, along with The Last in Line and Sacred Heart, were released in a new 2-CD Deluxe Edition on March 19, 2012 through Universal for worldwide distribution outside the U.S.[5]

"Caught in the middle" shares the main guitar riff with Campbell's previous band Sweet Savage's song "Straight through the heart" (1983).

Album art

The cover features the band mascot, Murray spinning chains around waves where a man with a priest or minister's collar in chains is floating. Dio was quick to argue that appearances are misleading, that it could just as easily be a priest killing a devil, wanting people not to "judge a book by its cover".[6]

Murray is featured on several other Dio albums.[7] When the "DIO" logo is viewed upside-down it can be interpreted as spelling either the word "DIE" or "DEVIL". Ronnie James Dio has called this purely coincidental. Album cover artwork is by artist Randy Berrett.

Themes

Around the time of making the album, a rise of heroic adventure elements in popular culture (such as J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books and role-playing games Dungeons & Dragons) were having influence. "Much of heavy metal took place on similar turf, a realm of dark towers and impenetrable wilderness populated by battles and adversity."[8] When Ronnie James Dio had been with Black Sabbath, "He reverently refurbished and reinvented the band's stately doom with grandiose concepts...Dio found a fertile fantasy framework for the big Sabbath themes of madness and desolation".[8] Dio, who had read Sir Walter Scott, Arthurian tales, and science fiction growing up, had previously used fantasy lyrics in his early 1970s band Elf.[8] Dio explained to an interviewer that influenced by his youthful reading, "When I became a songwriter, I thought what better thing to do than do what no one else is doing...to tell fantasy tales. Smartest thing I ever did."[8] The rock historian Ian Christe relates that for the post-Sabbath solo career "Dio simplified his stories substantially for a younger heavy metal audience. The 1983 debut Holy Diver, by his band Dio, reduced lush moral landscapes to simple good-versus-evil conflicts, using the lyrical duality of 'Rainbow in the Dark' and 'Holy Diver' to raise questions about deceit and hypocrisy in romance and religion. In the sharp contrasts of Dio's imagery, there was always a built-in contradiction that fed adolescent revolt: a black side to every white light, and a hidden secret behind every loud proclamation of truth. In a similar way, Dio's music balanced torrents of rage with brief acoustic interludes."[8]

Popular culture

"Holy Diver" is featured in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories on the radio station V-Rock. "Rainbow in the Dark" appears in Rock Band 3 and Rocksmith as DLC, and "Holy Diver" and "Stand Up and Shout" are featured as DLC for the series as a whole. It is also featured in Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s and Rocksmith. A short excerpt of the song Holy Diver also plays twice in a third season episode of South Park, "Hooked on Monkey Phonics″.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Kerrang!very favorable[9]
Mojo[10]
Martin Popoff[11]

AllMusic reviewer Eduardo Rivadavia praised the album, stating that "aside from Ronnie's unquestionably stellar songwriting, Holy Diver's stunning quality and consistency owed much to his carefully chosen bandmates, including powerhouse drummer and fellow [Black] Sabbath survivor Vinny Appice, veteran bassist Jimmy Bain, and a phenomenal find in young Irish guitarist Vivian Campbell, whose tastefully pyrotechnic leads helped make this the definitive Dio lineup. Holy Diver remains the undisputed highlight of Dio's career...and, indeed, one of the finest pure heavy metal albums of the 1980s."[1] Canadian reviewer Martin Popoff describes the album as "quintessential traditional metal", with Ronnie James Dio "almost single-handedly reinventing gothic hard rock for the '80s, incorporating strong melodic hooks and more than the genre's usual share of velvety, classical-based pyrotechnics."[11] Kerrang! gave the album a positive review in 1983 and Holy Diver ended up at no. 5 in the British magazine's End of Year list of best releases.[12] Today, Kerrang! still considers it a "perfect melodic metal album" and an "essential purchase".[9]

On IGN's list of "Top 25 Metal Albums", Holy Diver is at number 8, and this statement followed, "In all his bands, in all his roles, in all his musical vagabond choices, Ronnie James Dio has been fortunate enough to be associated with some of heavy metal's best -- Sabbath, Rainbow, and his own band Dio. To best represent his tenure in the genre, one must look no farther than Holy Diver. His first album with his new band was also his best. It is one of metal's best albums, and it spawned two of the greatest metal songs of the '80s: 'Holy Diver' and 'Rainbow in the Dark'. Featuring the underrated Vivian Campbell on guitar, this album showed that Dio could do it on his own."[13]

Track listing

All lyrics written by Ronnie James Dio, music as stated. 

Side one
No. TitleMusic Length
1. "Stand Up and Shout"  Jimmy Bain, Dio 3:18
2. "Holy Diver"  Dio 5:51
3. "Gypsy"  Vivian Campbell, Dio 3:39
4. "Caught in the Middle"  Vinny Appice, Campbell, Dio 4:14
5. "Don't Talk to Strangers"  Dio 4:53
Side two
No. TitleMusic Length
6. "Straight Through the Heart"  Bain, Dio 4:31
7. "Invisible"  Appice, Campbell, Dio 5:24
8. "Rainbow in the Dark"  Appice, Bain, Campbell, Dio 4:15
9. "Shame on the Night"  Appice, Bain, Campbell, Dio 5:19
Deluxe Edition Disc 2
No. TitleMusic Length
1. "Evil Eyes" (studio B-Side of "Holy Diver")Dio  
2. "Stand Up and Shout" (live B-Side of "Rainbow in the Dark" 12")   
3. "Straight Through the Heart" (live B-Side of "Rainbow in the Dark" 12")   
4. "Stand Up and Shout" (live at the King Biscuit Flower Hour, October 30, 1983)   
5. "Shame on the Night" (live at the King Biscuit Flower Hour, October 30, 1983)   
6. "Children of the Sea" (live at the King Biscuit Flower Hour, October 30, 1983)Geezer Butler, Dio, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward  
7. "Holy Diver" (live at the King Biscuit Flower Hour, October 30, 1983)   
8. "Rainbow in the Dark" (live at the King Biscuit Flower Hour, October 30, 1983)   
9. "Man on the Silver Mountain" (live at the King Biscuit Flower Hour, October 30, 1983)Ritchie Blackmore, Dio  

Personnel

Dio
Production

See also

Charts

Album
Year Chart Position
1983 UK Albums Chart[15] 13
Swedish Albums Chart[16] 18
New Zealand Albums Chart[17] 43
German Albums Chart[18] 52
US Billboard 200 [19] 56
2012 Oricon Japanese Albums Charts[20] 176

Singles
Year Title Chart Position
1983 "Holy Diver" Mainstream Rock (USA)[21] 40
Swedish Singles Chart[22] 60
UK Singles Chart[15] 72
"Rainbow in the Dark" Mainstream Rock (USA)[21] 14
UK Singles Chart[15] 46

Certifications

Country Organization Year Sales
USA RIAA 1989 Platinum (+ 1,000,000)[3]
UK BPI 1986 Silver (+ 60,000)[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Holy Diver Review". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 2007-03-13.
  2. ↑ McDonald, Riley. "The Daily Vault Album Reviews: Holy Diver". Retrieved 2007-03-13.
  3. 1 2 "RIAA Gold & Platinum Database, search for "Holy Diver"". Retrieved February 22, 2009.
  4. 1 2 "Search for Artist Dio". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  5. ↑ Siegler, Joe (1 February 2012). "Dio Deluxe Editions". Black Sabbath Online.com. Retrieved 2013-10-27.
  6. ↑ Quoted from the interview on the 2005 remastered CD edition of the album, track 19, 00'48
  7. ↑ Van Pelt, Doug (May–June 1997). "What Dio Sez". HM Magazine (65). ISSN 1066-6923. Archived from the original on 2000-12-12. Retrieved 2007-04-30.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Christe, Ian (2003). "Heavy Metal America: Highways & Video Waves". Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal. New York, New York: HarperCollins. pp. 67–68. ISBN 978-0-380-81127-4.
  9. 1 2 "Where to Start with Dio". Kerrang!. Archived from the original on 2014-03-06. Retrieved 2016-04-15.
  10. ↑ "Holy Diver CD (1989)". Rakuten. Retrieved 2016-01-04.
  11. 1 2 Popoff, Martin (1 November 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. ISBN 978-1-894959-31-5.
  12. ↑ "Kerrang! End Of year Lists 1983". Rocklist.net. Retrieved 2013-10-29.
  13. ↑ Spence D. and Ed T. (2011-09-14). "Top 25 Metal Albums - Music Feature at IGN". IGN. Retrieved 2011-10-22.
  14. ↑ Saulnier, Jason (24 March 2012). "Vinny Appice Interview". Music Legends. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  15. 1 2 3 "Dio Official Charts". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  16. ↑ "Dio – Holy Diver (album)". Swedishcharts.com. Media Control Charts. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  17. ↑ "Dio – Holy Diver (album)". Charts.org.nz. Media Control Charts. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  18. ↑ "Album – DIO, Holy Diver". Charts.de (in German). Media Control Charts. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  19. ↑ "Holy Diver Billboard Albums". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  20. ↑ ロニー・ジェームス・ディオのアルバム (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  21. 1 2 "Holy Diver Billboard Singles". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  22. ↑ "Dio – Holy Diver (song)". Swedishcharts.com. Media Control Charts. Retrieved 2013-10-28.

External links

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