Dio-Dream Evil, 1987
I remember going to the record store in the summer of 1987 and I had enough money to buy only one cassette. I saw a stack of the recently released Dio's Dream Evil sitting there and considered it, but ultimately went with Running Wild's Under Jolly Roger instead. Yet as I was paying for it I asked the clerk if the new Dio was any good. She laughed and said "Yes, but it was strange that lots of people had been asking about the new Dio, but then bought something else". Not long after that I saw the videos for "I could have been a dreamer" and "All the fools sailed away". I was a little less than impressed by these songs and still avoided the album. It probably wasn't until early 1988 that I met someone who actually owned it. When I heard I was surprised because the two video songs were not representative of the whole album. Guitarist Craig Goldie had replaced Vivian Campbell back in 1986. He had actually played on part of the Sacred Heart tour and recorded the track "Time to burn" for the Intermission ep in '86. One thing I always liked about Dio (the person) is that I think he has let his guitarist put some of their own style into the songs. Craig Goldie certainly gets to do that here and the result is one of Dio's more energetic albums. Let's face it, Ronnie's vocals are always on so how good a Dio album is depends on how good the music is. Fortunately most of the music here is almost as good as the vocals. The title track, "Sunset Superman"and "Naked in the rain" are all strong tracks somewhat similar to material from the Holy Diver and The last in line albums. I think "Naked in the rain", "Faces in the window", "When a woman cries" and the superb "Overlove" are all even better. Those last four are very enthusiastic and help this album to be better than the slightly stale "Sacred Heart" that was released in 1985. I have come to terms with "I could have been a dreamer" because now I think it's decent but a step back from the other tracks I listed above. However, I really can't take "All the fools sailed away" as it is very dull and at seven plus minutes is just hard to take. Overall I think that this is the third best album of Dio solo career behind "Holy Diver" and "The last in line". Yet I think this was the beginning of a slide in popularity for Dio. Last week we reviewed Whitesnake's self titled album and it's album whose popularity was largely made by releasing the right singles. Dio's Dream Evil might be a good example of an album that was hurt by it's singles. Neither "I could have been a dreamer" of "All the fools sailed away" rock and I don't think either one drew people in. I also think 1987 was a time when commercial hard rock and speed metal were both increasing in popularity. These were like the polar ends of metal and bands in the middle like Dio who were big just two or three years earlier were seeing fans follow younger bands. In the U.S. "The Last in line" charted at position 24 in 1984, "Sacred Heart" charted at position 29 and "Dream Evil" charted at position 43. So it was a significant drop in popularity. Still it's a really fine album that stands up pretty well and I enjoy listening to it today.
***Now remember it's March Metal Madness so go check out the reviews of this album over at Hard rock hideout , Heavy metal addiction and Pulses, verses and other flotsam. Join us next week as we take on Testament's debut "The Legacy".
10 Comments:
I am not sure If I have heard them before it sounds familiar but I am not sure if I heard it or someone spoke about it. They cover are amazing and I like their song titles:)
I have never listened to this album. I was a HUGE DIO fan back in the day. Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules were truly LIFE CHANGING albums for me and Holy Diver and Last In Line were amazing and incredible live shows....and then Sacred Heart came out...I saw the tour and it was an even bigger stage spectacular than the others had been, but the new music just wasn't there for me...so, I quit buying the new stuff...I didn't buy Sacred Heart and although I've seen him in concert several times since, I quit buying the new albums...this review has made me want to go back and give it a listen...there might be some gems in there after all.
Robert, if you like the Sabbath discs with DIO, I think you will like Dream Evil fairly well. There are a couple of tracks that are more of melodic hard rock, but the rest is all heavy.
Craig Goldy really took the music up a couple of notches from Sacred Heart.
And of course, Vinnie Appice left Sabbath to join DIO when he went solo, so you are getting 1/2 of Black Sabbath on this disc.
:)
I've recently bought this and two other Dio vinyls off ebay so have had quite a bit of Dio recently. I like this one but the other two I bought are Holy Diver and Sacred Heart and they are better. This sounds very much like the Rainbow and Sabbath stuff Dio did (unsurprisingly) and is well worth checking out tho. Some parts are a little too commercial and the keyboards are overused in places. Decent album.....
Whether the music's that good or not, RJD could sing the phone book and I'd probably buy it.
-- david
One Amazing Dio fact that I had to look up over the weekend is the age of RJD. He is 65 years old in 2007, and still sings better than a lot of 20 year olds. Amazing!
Couldn't argue with getting Running Wild! Great album that is. Good review, Mark.
Mark - Good review but how did you pass up Dio for Running Wild? I have the Running Wild album too, at least you went back for it.
etain-You should give Dio try.
Robert-The first two Dio albums are the best, but after that I would suggest Dream Evil and Killing the dragon.
Hard rock hideout-I agree that craig Goldy did a fine job here.
Rock of ages-Actually I have always thought that anything Dio did was very similar. At least maybe from Rainbow's Rising on.
David-I agree.
hard rock hideout-He is certainly one of the most consistant singers I know of.
Ray-Thanks.
Rhodeislandrock-At the time I was much more into exploring new bands. So I would often pass up a big name band to hear someone new. I knew I could always hear the big name bands from someone else.
Dream evil is the greatest metal album for all the times,dio is god,the only one god for me!!!!!
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