After a few very successful years with the heavy metal
titans, Ronnie left Sabbath over numerous misunderstandings and started his own
band, simply called Dio. Now that
Ronnie was finally the sole leader of a band, he hired his own musicians, who
would all become (or already were) big names in the music business. Dio made an immediate impact with their
debut album Holy Diver, which is
still considered a classic to this day. The band pumped out great album after
great album until Ronnie’s short reunion with Black Sabbath in the early 90’s, which didn’t last longer than an
album and a tour after egos broke them up again.
Ronnie reunited Dio
only to have some (but luckily not too many) problems finding a consistent
line-up. This time around the band never managed to release an album that had
as much impact as the bands first four albums, but still managed to remain
relevant within the world of heavy metal. Ronnie would eventually once again
rejoin Black Sabbath in 2007 and
release a new album with them called The
Devil You Know. This line-up was technically called Heaven and Hell due to legal issues, but no fan of the band has
ever referred to this band as anything but Black
Sabbath. It was in this time of performing with Black Sabbath than Ronnie developed stomach cancer and then passed
away, leaving a hole in heavy metal too big for anyone to ever possibly fill.
Since his death, Ronnie’s widow Wendy Dio has continued to make sure that Ronnie’s name is not
forgotten by releasing a few posthumous releases, particularly live albums/DVDs
and compilations. Most recently in June of 2013, the release of the deluxe
edition Dio’s 2000 album Magica was released.
Magica stands out as not only
containing some of the finest tunes in Ronnie’s career, but it also marks the
return of the bands second guitarist Craig
Goldy, after the departure of Tracy
G who performed on the previous two albums. It also marked the return of
bassist Jimmy Bain, whose career
with Ronnie goes as far back to Rainbow’s
1976 sophomore album Rising. As well
the album featured mainstays drummer Simon
Wright and keyboardist Scott Warren.
Magica was, for the first time in
Ronnie’s career, a concept album, essentially taking place in the eponymous
medieval-esque planet.
Because it is a concept album, the song structures are a bit
on the bizarre side. What I mean by this is something any listener will
discover right from the first track, Discovery,
which is not a song, but rather a robotic voice (heard at many points on the
album) introducing the album and gaining information on this strange land
called “Magica”. This leads in to the first actual song, titled Magica Theme, which is a short
instrumental track that leads in to the first full song, titled Lord of the Last Day; a slow dark metal
tune that gets straight to the point, not even taking a minute to get to the
songs guitar solo. The songs middle section picks up into a melodic, slightly
faster paced beat.
The album continues with Fever
Dreams, continuing a very dark sound, darker than almost anything the band Dio has released. It is continued with Turn To Stone which, after a short
guitar solo intro, turns in to a bit more of a faster paced song compared to
the tracks that precede it. But it continues this very dark nature that the album
seems to be consistent with. Feed My
Head then takes a familiar Dio
sound. Personally I feel it sounds like something that could have been on an
album like 1987’s Dream Evil.
The next two tracks on the album are titled after the names
of the characters in the albums story that they respectively concern. Eriel, whom in the story of Magica is
considered the hero, is an epic seven minute song. Starting with an eerie heavy
metal orchestral intro, the song turns in to the type of epic song that Ronnie
has made a career of performing. Just like Stargazer
from his Rainbow days, this song
does through many different sections, including the long apocalyptic ending
just like so many of Ronnie’s epics. This is song is followed by Challis, whom in the story of Magica is
Eriel’s protégé, so to speak. This
song is not an epic but rather more of a traditional heavy metal song.
As beautiful as Ronnie’s voice can be, he has rarely sung a
ballad, particularly while singing in Dio.
When in Rainbow he performed some of
the most beautiful songs ever recorded such as Catch the Rainbow and Rainbow
Eyes (For those who have never listened to Rainbow, no not all of their song titles contain the word “rainbow).
Typically with Dio he would start a
song or put a small segment in a song with his softer voice, such as the intro
to Last in Line or the middle
section to Egypt (The Chains Are On).
On this album, we get the privilege of hearing that voice once again in the
song As Long As It’s Not About Love.
Though this track starts off very soft, it picks up slightly to be a tad more
aggressive, but at every point of the song Ronnie sings from his heart in a way
that no heavy metal singer has ever done.
Losing My
Insanity experiments with different sounds like so many songs on this
album have done. This time the song starts off with what sounds like a
mandolin, or just an acoustic guitar, playing a tune that sounds like it
belongs in a folklore fantasy world such as the world that this albums story portrays.
The mandolin/acoustic riff eventually turns in to an electric guitar riff, which
then turns the song in to another terrific heavy metal tune. This leads in to
the last full song on the album; Otherworld.
This song brings back the slow dark sound that started the album. I’ve always
regarded this song as my least favourite from the album, but it fits on the
album as well as even the songs I consider the best on the album fit in.
The album then ends with a couple of reprises, Magica [Reprise], which adds lyrics to
the previous Magica Theme
instrumental, and Lord of the Last Day
[Reprise], which is merely a very shortened version of the previous track
of the same name. Then the 20 minute Magica
Story which is not a song, but Ronnie himself telling the story of Magica. This is a unique moment and it
answers questions as to some of the songs on the album such as Turn to Stone.
Before Ronnie passed away, it was well known that he was
working on a double disc sequel to this album titled simply Magica II & III. Unfortunately he
passed away long before its completion, but in this recently released deluxe
edition, two of the tracks have surfaced. Annica,
which is simply a tremendous instrumental with Craig Goldy on lead guitar, and Electra, which is a six minute epic that was to tell the story of a
newly introduced character to the story. This track features sometimes Dio guitarist and current full time Whitesnake guitarist Doug Aldrich on guitar. This song shows
that had the Magica sequels been
released, they would have been equally as terrific as the first Magica album. Ronnie’s voice sounds
better than it did at most points on The
Devil You Know (the last full album he ever released, during his final
reunion with Black Sabbath).
We can be thankful that Ronnie did not die before his time.
So many musicians, countless numbers of them in fact, passed away so young that
we are left wondering what would have become of them had they lived. Ronnie
luckily had a full life and career of making music. It just hurts knowing that
he was so far from finished with making music when he passed. He had such an
impact on heavy metal and everyone who ever knew him felt his magic. When I met
Black Sabbath/Dio drummer Vinny Appice
recently, and mentioned to him I had seen him perform twice live with Black Sabbath, it didn’t take him one
second to say “good, so you’ve seen Ronnie”. That moment really showed how
selfless Ronnie made even the most popular of musicians that he performed with.
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT
“Feed My Head” – It is difficult to
pick a highlight from most Dio albums.
Feed My Head I feel displays most of
what Dio fans love about the band in
general, and not what they will like about this album. As mentioned previously,
it sounds like something that could have been released on the Dream Evil album. It features some of
the dark aspects that continue through this album, but it’s the transition from
being a heavy hitter to turning in to its soft middle section, reminding me
personally of the middle section to 1984’s Egypt
(The Chains Are On) that makes this a highlight. I’m not sure I’d call this the best track from the album, but if
this were the first song someone to hear from the album, Dio fan or not, they would get the perfect idea of what the album
is all about.
FINAL RATING
9 (Out of 10)
Track List:
1.
|
"Discovery"
|
0:54
|
2.
|
"Magica
Theme"
|
1:16
|
3.
|
"Lord
of the Last Day"
|
4:04
|
4.
|
"Fever
Dreams"
|
4:37
|
5.
|
"Turn
to Stone"
|
5:19
|
6.
|
"Feed
My Head"
|
5:39
|
7.
|
"Eriel"
|
7:25
|
8.
|
"Challis"
|
4:25
|
9.
|
"As
Long as It's Not About Love"
|
6:04
|
10.
|
"Losing
My Insanity"
|
5:04
|
11.
|
"Otherworld"
|
4:56
|
12.
|
"Magica
(Reprise)"
|
1:53
|
13.
|
"Lord
of the Last Day (Reprise)"
|
1:44
|
14.
|
"Magica
Story"
|
18:26
|
Disc 2:
1.
|
"The Magica Story"
|
||
2.
|
"Annica"
|
||
3.
|
"Electra"
|
||
4.
|
"Feed My Head (official live bootleg)"
|
||
5.
|
"Fever Dreams (official live bootleg)"
|
||
6.
|
"Turn To Stone (official live bootleg)"
|
||
7.
|
"Lord Of The Last Day (official live bootleg)"
|
||
8.
|
"As Long As It's Not About Love (official live
bootleg)"
|
||
9.
|
"Losing My Insanity (official live bootleg)"
|
No comments:
Post a Comment