R.I.P. Ronnie James Dio

On May 16, 2010, we lost one of the founding fathers of heavy metal music. A career that has spanned more than 50 years; from the early days as the Vegas Kings in 1957 (which went through a few name changes and a few lineups), to Elf, then Rainbow, then to the peak of his career with Black Sabbath, and forming his own band Dio...back to Black Sabbath, back to Dio, and last, Heaven & Hell (which lead to, IMO, the album of 2009: The Devil You Know).

I thank my friend, and partner in this project, Josh, for getting me into Dio's music around 2007. I was familiar with Black Sabbath, but never really heard any of the Dio material. Once I heard some of it, I was instantly hooked. Ronnie James Dio had a very powerful, yet articulate voice...it was almost like poetry coming to life. And even into his last studio album, The Devil You Know, his voice remained the same...as great as it could ever be.

Dio, you will truly be missed. Your music will always live on. If you love hard rock or heavy metal music, you need to listen to Ronnie James Dio's wonderful voice.

We'll try to get some of Dio's music on this blog soon enough. However, we do have something to start it off. As you might be aware already, Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules, and Live Evil were given the deluxe edition treatment in the UK, and all three were released on April 5th. That does leave one Dio-era album to go: Dehumanizer, from 1992. There is no doubt that it'll get the same treatment down the line, but for those that can't wait, The Audiography Project presents a custom remaster of that great album! The remastering is based on The Dio Years, the 2007 compilation album. While the album was remastered in the US, as part of The Rules Of Hell boxset, the quality was simply inferior to The Dio Years (at least, IMO). This release also includes one additional track: the alternate version of Letters From Earth, originally released on the TV Crimes CD single. Download it from Demonoid by clicking on the link below:

http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/2247572/8846090/


Rock on...