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.
Hilariously, the "Ronnie Rising Medley" is probably the best recording Metallica has ever made.
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.