As some of you might know, or might have gathered from my music choices, I'm a big Dio fan. The man's a legend. He started his music career in the end of the 50's, doing Doo-Wop (no seriously, look up Ronnie and the Prophets) and made musical contributions to the next five, count 'em, five decades. He rose up the ranks, going through a good 4-5 band re-brandings until his band Elf became acquainted with famed Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. They essentially adopted him in and became Rainbow, his first big band. After 3 albums with Rainbow he left the band and joined up to be the second lead singer of Black Sabbath, becoming an even bigger force to be reckoned with. After two phenomenal albums, he left Sabbath and created his own band, named Dio, which had a long successful career in it's own right.
Why do I lead this post with such a long intro? Because to fully appreciate the scope of Inferno, you need to know the history of the man behind it. Since tomorrow would have been Dio's 70's birthday, I figured I'd celebrate by recommending the best non-greatest hits greatest hits that has ever been put out, Inferno: Last In Live. I've actually just seen it re-released with the title Dio's Inferno, as listed on Spotify, but it's the same album track for track.
Inferno was recorded in the time of Dio's 97-98 Angry Machines tour, which I always find a little funny. The best live recording comes from the tour of one of the well, lesser albums. Inferno is a two-disc masterpiece, covering everything from Rainbow to two tracks off Angry Machines, 20-ish years of material. Throughout the album, Ronnie sounds as alive as ever, which is great for someone in their late 50's at the time of recording. One thing Dio had a penchant for is engaging and talking to the audience, including them in the concert. Usually this means he would point to the audience and tell them that they were something, aka they were all rainbows in the dark, or they were all the man on the silver mountain or some such thing. Not innovative by any means, but cheesy and endearing. And when I said this was the best non-greatest hits greatest hits, I meant it.
Disc one opens with Jesus, Mary & the Holy Ghost, a track off of Strange Highways. Not a perfect album, but standard fare for later Dio albums. The next three tracks usher us right into his debut solo album, Holy Diver, with Straight Through The Heart, Don't Talk To Strangers, and of course, Holy Diver. Three perfect tracks from the beginning of his solo career. Then we get a drum solo from Sabbath and Dio alum Vinny Appice, which leads right into Sabbath classic Heaven and Hell. From there we get Double Monday, an Angry Machines track, then the classic Stand Up and Shout, and closing out the disc is Hunter of the Heart, another Angry Machines track. By itself, this would be a pretty great later Dio live album. But that's just half way. The second disc is where it really opens up.
Disc two is the the disc I live for. The first disc is great, but the second is essentially a treat for all the long term fans. Dio runs through Rainbow, Sabbath and his own material in a manner that comes with having spent so many years figuring out what fans want. Disc two opens with a medley of the Rainbow tracks Mistreated and Catch The Rainbow, coming out to about 10 minutes. Then there is a guitar solo from guitarist Tracy G, who does a great job on this album. Then we get The Last In Line and then Rainbow in the Dark, two classic Dio tracks. Then it gets interesting. Dio explains to the crowd that instead of going backstage and waiting for them to come back out and do an encore, they were just going to do it right then. And so, he does. He rips right into Sabbath classic The Mob Rules, and from there runs through two classic Rainbow tracks, Man on the Silver Mountain and Long Live Rock and Roll and then for the grand finale slams into Dio classic We Rock.
It hits every base a fan could hope for. Disc One adds in tracks from some later Dio albums and mixes them with some Sabbath and a large chunk of Holy Diver, and then Disc Two plays through essentially the rest of the classic Dio hits with a large dose of Rainbow and another Sabbath track. While Dio wasn't a perfect songwriter and most of his solo albums had some filler to them, this double disc set mostly eliminates that. I'm not too big on Strange Highways or Angry Machines, but what can you do, they only account for 3 out of 18 tracks. Holy Diver and The Last In Line are classic albums for a reason, and it's because the tracks were straightforward, inspired and had little filler on them. On this release, We get the majority of Holy Diver and a couple tracks from The Last In Line so you get the best of Dio's solo career, you get a lot of Rainbow's strongest songs, and you get two of the best Dio-era Sabbath tracks that had some speed to them. It plays like a love letter to his fans, and that's what Ronnie James Dio was all about, loving his fans. It's cheesy and cliched, sure, but without Dio the landscape of modern Metal wouldn't look the same. He sang about the mystical and fantastical, about the empowerment of the youth, about standing up for what you believed in. He is a large part of why the cliche exists, he was the originator. He invented the devil horns, the sign Metal heads embraced and became a huge part of our culture. He opened up the doors for Power Metal, he gave life back to the band that almost single-handedly invented Heavy Metal. He lived a life well lived, but cut short. With this live album, you get the experience of what the man was all about. Happy birthday Dio, you were a hell of a man.
