| Holy Diver | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Dio | ||||
| Released | May 25, 1983 | |||
| Recorded | 1983, Sound City Studios, Van Nuys, California | |||
| Genre | Heavy metal | |||
| Length | 41:36 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. (US and Canada) Vertigo Rock Candy Records Mercury (South and North America) |
|||
| Producer | Ronnie James Dio | |||
| Dio chronology | ||||
|
||||
Holy Diver is the debut album from American heavy metal band Dio.
Contents |
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 eventually 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.
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 B-sides to the singles, most of them live, remain generally unavailable on CD. Some were included in a limited-edition Japanese CD box set.
The cover was controversial, featuring a devil killing a cleric. 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".[4]
The demon-like monster is the band's mascot known as "Murray" and is featured on several other Dio albums as well.[5] When the "DIO" logo is viewed upside-down it can be interpreted as spelling either the word "DIE" or "DEVIL". However, Ronnie James Dio has denied this and called it purely coincidental.
"Holy Diver" is featured in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. "Rainbow in the Dark" appears in Rock Band 3.
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| Mojo | [6] |
On IGN's list of "Top 25 Metal Albums", Holy Diver was 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."[7]
Allmusic reviewer Eduardo Rivadavia praised the album, stating "...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]
All lyrics written by Ronnie James Dio.
| Side one | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Music | 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. | Title | Music | Length | ||||||
| 1. | "Straight Through the Heart" | Bain, Dio | 4:31 | ||||||
| 2. | "Invisible" | Appice, Campbell, Dio | 5:24 | ||||||
| 3. | "Rainbow in the Dark" | Appice, Bain, Campbell, Dio | 4:15 | ||||||
| 4. | "Shame on the Night" | Appice, Bain, Campbell, Dio | 5:19 | ||||||
| Year | Album | Chart positions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billboard 200 | UK Album Charts | ||
| 1983 | Holy Diver | #56 | #13 |
| Year | Song | Chart positions |
|---|---|---|
| US Mainstream Rock Tracks | ||
| 1983 | "Holy Diver" | #40 |
| "Rainbow in the Dark" | #14 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||