POLLgica - the non-Holy Diver DIO albums poll

the one thing I find amusing is he did similar to Ozzy and embraced a little bit more of the pop/hair metal after his first breakout album. The Last in Line has plenty of songs that go hard, but the synths are more prominent and there is at least one song that reminds me of a much sleazier Foreigner. Dream Evil has more of the hair metal element, probably because of acquiring Craig Goldy. and as he went through the late 90s and into the early 2000s, he was kind of veering back more into tr00 metal.

Strange Highways is the closest thing he did to a doom album, other than a few tracks that bleed together, this one is fantastic! I do love the nerdiness of Magica as well, gimme all the over the top concept albums.

do wanna say Last in Line will probably not be it for me. the highs don't get as high. "We Rock" is awesome, but does feel a little bit like intentionally trying to create anotehr "Stand Up and Shout". but it's a consistent album so it's good. "Egypt" is fun if not cheesy (which is part of the allure IMO).

I like Strange Highways and Angry Machines probably more than I should. "Jesus, Mary and the Holy Ghost," the first track on Strange Highways, is an unbelievably blatant ripoff of King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" - I'm amazed Robert Fripp didn't sue him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mNGBmeO6Ao

oh, i'll have to keep an eye on this thread, as a fan of holy diver and the dio sabbath albums who doesn't really know any of these records

One area where I'll take Last In Line over Holy Diver: the cover art for HD is no question iconic but the LIL cover honestly freaked me out when I first saw it -- I'm guessing appearing at the height of 80s Cold War nuke paranoia did NOT help, and still feels like one of the best ways of depicting something that nightmarish without necessarily being that -- and still has a lingering power.