Just picked up "This Is Your Life:Ronnie James Dio"
 

I can't wait to listen. It's a tribute album to Dio and here's the song list.

Neon Knights - Anthrax
The Last In Line - Tenacious D
The Mob Rules - Adrenaline Mob
Rainbow In The Dark - Corey Taylor, Roy Mayorga, Satchel, Christian Martucci, Jason Christopher
Straight Through The Heart - Halestorm
Starstruck - Motörhead with Biff Byford
The Temple Of The King - Scorpions
Egypt (The Chains Are On) - Doro
Holy Diver - Killswitch Engage
Catch The Rainbow - Glenn Hughes, Simon Wright, Craig Goldy, Rudy Sarzo, Scott Warren
I - Oni Logan, Jimmy Bain, Rowan Robertson, Brian Tichy
Man On The Silver Mountain - Rob Halford, Vinny Appice, Doug Aldrich, Jeff Pilson, Scott Warren
Ronnie Rising Medley (Featuring A Light In The Black, Tarot Woman, Stargazer, Kill The King) - Metallica
This Is Your Life - Dio

They played the entire thing on the rock station I listen to. I didn't get a chance to hear everything but I was pretty happy with "Rainbow in the Dark" by Corey Taylor. The "Holy Diver" cover by Killswitch Engage was done a while ago...but it's still a ****ing awesome cover.

I caught Halford singing Man on the Silver Mountain on Sirius/XM. The instrumentals were ****ing fantastic, Halford was just ok. Nothing he did wrong, but I never realized just how tailor maid that song was for RJD until I heard someone else sing it. I'll likely have to listen to it a couple of more times to really get a feel for Halford's vocals in that song.

Also caught a portion of Anthrax's Neon Knights. What I heard sounded good.

So far the Anthrax and Adrenaline Mob covers have been SUPERB. The vocals are great and a real tribute to Ronnie.

The Tenacious D cover is...well...Tenacious D. The flute solo is just special.

3 songs in and I already LOVE this album.

"Rainbow in the Dark" is definitely at the high, high end of Corey Taylor's range. Still pretty good though.

Awesome Album!
I'm so glad that I not only saw Dio a few times as a kid but also as an adult a few yrs back when he toured one last time with Sabbath.
IMO his voice was absolutely one of the Best Heavy metal voices of all time.
The little guy could scream and scream clearly.

I know you all love his music but I can vouch for the man himself.
I live 20 miles south of where Ronnie grew up in a small city in Cortland N.Y.
Many of his family still live there so he would come home during downtime often.
My in Laws also lived there so I'd often find myself there on Sundays.
There is a local Diner that he often went to for Sunday Brunch and thru the yrs I'd seen him there a handful of times.
In a rather large diner full of Blue hairs who really don't have a clue who the F&ck he is I'd always snicker to myself that's DIO you idiots.

There is plenty of signed memorabilia throughout the Diner not any of the darker stuff just his pic lots of signed posters..concert shots etc.
Under many of the glass table covers he signed and wrote a small note.

He was always polite always willing to talk about his music.
And hey how many can say they walked down a buffet line with Dio.
The last time I saw him there he was commenting about he wasn't exactly in love with his last solo Album and I told him sorry I might not have that one.
He being a smart ass loudly said Why the Hell not .. I almost dropped my plate.. :doh!:
He laughed
I was like give me a break I have almost every one of your Albums and I've seen you 4 times..look around the diner..if you find someone in the dining room that has even one of your albums I'll buy your lunch...he laughed.

Great performer even a better person.

Not fond of the Halestorm cover of "Straight Through the Heart". They made a subtle change to the main guitar riff that really changes the feel of the song and while I don't have anything against female singers, her voice just doesn't do the song any justice.

The Scorpoins cover of "The Temple of the King" gave me goosebumps.

Much like the Halestorm song, I don't have anything against Doro or female singers in general, it just didn't work. The one thing about Ronnie was that he didn't just have range, he also had power. There's no "growl" in her voice, she sounds "pretty" rather than "mean".

As was mentioned, the Killswitch Engage cover of "Holy Diver" was released previously. As before, I still don't like it. I personally think they butcher the song but I'm just not a fan of that style of music.

Hearing Glenn Hughes sing "Catch the Rainbow" is surreal. Different voice than Dio but still easily one of the best in the business. Both he and Ronnie worked with Blackmore. Both he and Ronnie worked with Tony Iommi. But they never worked together on anything that I know of. I've always been a big Glenn Hughes fan.

I can see where you were coming from with the comments on the Rob Halford cover. His voice is just one that doesn't work for singing Dio. Of course, there's a lot of Judas Priest songs that Ronnie couldn't sing either. :D

Hilariously, the "Ronnie Rising Medley" is probably the best recording Metallica has ever made. :p Like the Killswitch Engage cover, Metallica applies their own unique sound to the song moreso than most of the other songs on the album. Unlike the Killswitch Engage cover, however, it actually sounds COOL.

Overall, it's a great album, as any album full of Dio covers would be. :)

More than that, though, it's an excellent mix of his contemporaries, former bandmates, and newer artists that idolized him. It's good to see names like Vinny Appice, Doug Aldrich, Jimmy Bain, Rowan Robertson, and Craig Goldy.

I'm really not surprised there's no appearance by Vivian Campbell, even though Viv says he's over all of the drama now the Ronnie is dead. I'm also a little disappointed there's not an appearance by any of Ronnie's Sabbath bandmates outside of Appice. A little Iommi cameo would have been cool.

Interesting that he himself wasn't in love with "Master of the Moon". There were quite a few people that didn't like it.

However, his 2nd to last solo album "Killing the Dragon" is SUPERB.

Hearing him sing "This is Your Life" as the ending track, with nothing behind him but a piano...

Amazing and yet sad...

*Raises hand*

Saw him 4 times starting with Holy Diver. His music was not as good once Viv left- and Viv never played as good without Dio.

Always put on a great show!! Can't wait to get this-it is for a good cause too!!

Speaking of Dio covers -

While Blackmore is technically covering himself, I like the Blackmore's Night version of "Rainbow Eyes" more than the Rainbow version. It's a little faster, for one thing, and doesn't drag as much.

I saw him twice. The first time was on Sabbath's "Mob Rules" tour in Portland and then solo on the "Holy Diver" tour in Spokane. I also saw Rainbow once but, sadly, he had left the band by then.

Did you see them with Graham Bonnett?

LMAO

Joe Lynn Turner


Streets of Dreams, yo