Holy Diver by Dio (CD, Jul-1983, Warner Bros.)

With the debut album, Holy Diver, in 1983, Dio struck gold once again by injecting catchy melodies into the classic metal riffery of his previous groups. Besides Dio's inspired songwriting, the album's consistency owes a lot to his carefully chosen bandmates, including veteran bassist Jimmy Bain and drummer Vinny Appice, and a phenomenal find in young guitarist Vivian Campbell, whose creativity and technique are quite astounding. Dio himself plays keyboards (badly) on the hit single "Rainbow in the Dark," and the remaining cuts range from further stabs at pop-metal ("Gypsy," "Caught in the Middle") to blatant metal anthems ("Straight Through the Heart," "Invisible"). These two facets find a perfect balance on the excellent "Don't Talk to Strangers," arguably the album's high point. I like works of Ronnie James Dio in Rainbow and Black Sabbath times, so I decided to buy his first solo album which I listened previously in tape with bad quality.

Ronnie James Dio,left(or,was booted out:quote from RJD himself)from Black Sabbath,he wanted to make his own band.He then made 2 tracks,"holy diver" and "dont talk to strangers",with those 2 songs,he presented them to some of his old "band buddies"(no names needed),and they joined him immediatly after listening to those 2 songs,they made the whole album in not more then 6 months,they had a great chemistry and the whole album kinda just flowed out.The song "Rainbow in the dark" is Vinnie`s riff,he called it "a bottle of wine" when he worked on it,hehe,RJD thought maby "rainbow in the dark" sounded maby "cooler"hehe, i guess he was right,he was then, and still are, the musical genius he is known to be,he made big songs for :Elf,Rainbow,Black Sabbath and ofcourse in my opinion Dio the best group ever put togheter.And i must add,finally got it on a Mint Obi pressing,thats the japanese vinyl-pressings that are superior in sound and quality,beats cd sound down any day of the week if the Vinyl is been handled with care,i only listen to vinyl,its a whole different experience then cd.its the closest you can get the "studio or consert-sound) if this is a importen thing for you,i know,it is very importen for me,then a Obi pressed vinyl album is the best sound money can buy for private use.But,theres also Obi cd albums available, with ofcourse better sound then a regular cd,but not close to a Obi vinyl album,but thats alot of work to handle correctly, and its a very delicate thing,so for party`s and stuff, i only let people use my CD player.

kno3dude

This album has to be one of the greatest hard rock albums of all time.Not just for the bigger hits like Rainbow in the Dark and the title track,but for hidden gems like Gypsy,Invincible,Caught in the Middle and my personal favorite-and possibly one of the greatest rock songs out there Don't Talk to Strangers.If Ronnie James Dio was never in Elf, Rainbow or Black Sabbath and only had this one album,he would still be the king of rock-n-roll!!

Ronnie James Dio has been a vocalist for the bands Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath and finally his own band DIO. Dio's previous work with guitarists Tony Iommi and Richie Blackmore challenged Ronnie to match their skills with his first album. Although I find the album fantastic after 23 years, I find that it does match the work he did for Rainbow, but lacks the elaborate guitar work of Tony Iommi (Like the intro to Children of the Sea from the Black Sabbath album "Heaven and Hell".) The album does stand on its' own merits and I recommend this for those of us who love HARD Rock and Roll!!
Page Sausman
Boise,Idaho USA

WHen I listen to Holy Diver, I'm 17 again. Every time. This, to me, is one of a handful of albums that define the essence of heavy metal rock and roll. Even though I'm on the bad side of 40 now, I still bang my head in the car when this plays. Vivian Campbell's AWESOME guitar work is really the best part to me, but Ronnie James Dio's very distinctive vocals are the best of his long career. Every song is great, and the whole disc is so good, that once you hear it, the rest of Dio's work will seem a little lacking.