After what felt like forever, the
weekend has arrived. My weekend’s only scheduled events were cancelled but I’m
just as happy to have a quiet couple of days with Sheila. My social calendar
can get a bit crazy, and on those weekends when I have nothing planned at all,
I appreciate the rest.
Disc 783 is….Sacred Heart
Artist: Dio
Year of Release: 1985
What’s up with the Cover? Just another kick ass metal
album cover. Here we have some wizened hands holding a crystal ball that is
obviously predicting a dragon attack. Or maybe it is the dragon in human form
seeing its true self reflected in the crystal ball. Either way, my inner
fifteen year old shouted “fuck yeah!” when I saw it.
How I Came To Know It: I was a big Dio fan as a kid – I probably
liked Dio more than Black Sabbath in the day. When my brother bought this album
I borrowed it off him and taped a bunch of favourites. As a result I know half
the album way better than the other half. As for the CD, I had a hard time
finding it until it showed up about five years ago at a local record store.
Naturally, I snapped it up.
How It Stacks Up: I have Dio’s first three albums.
I’m not a big fan of his later work, so this may be it for me. Of the three,
and I’ll put “Sacred Heart” second, or smack dab in the middle. Since this is the last Dio review in my collection, here they are ranked:
Ratings: 3 stars
“Sacred Heart” is Ronnie James Dio’s last great
album. As usual, after I listened to it I was inspired to go on Youtube and
check out “Dream Evil” and “Lock Up the Wolves” but they just aren’t at the
same level as his first three records.
“Sacred Heart” doesn’t start in inspiring fashion,
with a loose and slightly sloppy live version of “King of Rock and Roll” but after that it really picks up steam. The
title track is a six and a half minute epic filled with classic Dio mythology
of dragon slaying and magic quests. It would make for a shitty fantasy movie,
but it makes for a great metal song. Dio’s incredible vocals carry the song, as
they do for all the songs on the record.
The album also benefits throughout from drummer
Vinnie Appice, who left Black Sabbath with Dio and appears on most of his solo
work. Appice’s drumming is precise and hard as hell and grounds these songs
with a heaviness that is needed to offset all the soaring melodies. The drums
on “Like the Beat of Heart” are
particularly monstrous, and make the song grimy and dirty, like an early Judas
Priest track.
Most of the songs I loved as a kid were the ones
featuring some kind of fantasy theme, and those songs remain favourites, but I
can better appreciate the other tracks now than when I was a teenager. “Another Lie” and “Rock n’ Roll Children” are both better than I remember them. Both
are songs about love gone wrong in some way, either through internal or external
forces. In Dio’s hands they become wild romances. If these songs were books,
they’d be bodice-rippers with racy covers. “Rock
n’ Roll Children” even starts with some organ chords that would be equally
at home on a Meatloaf record.
“Hungry for
Heaven” also features flourishes of organ that had me thinking of Dio’s
earlier work in bands like Rainbow, and it is definitely a lighter sound than
the heavier metal on his previous album, “Last in Line.” Despite a pretty
sweet metal solo from guitarist (Mr.) Vivian Campbell this song’s schmaltz
might’ve rubbed some metal fans the wrong way back in 1985, but I liked it
then, and I like it now.
Things get heavy again before the end with the
aforementioned “Like the Beat of a Heart”
which is one of the record’s standouts. Pounding drums and grinding guitar and
some of Dio’s classic bat-shit crazy lyrics:
"Don't look behind 'cause a
tear that never dies can only make you blind
You've got to try 'cause the
future's never never gonna die
There's a beast that lives inside
you and it's screaming to get out
It's a storm that's never ending
it's a truth without a doubt."
A tear that never dies can only make you blind?
Sounds like something your grandmother would tell you to get you to stop crying
after she watched your best Battlestar Galactica t-shirt by hand and wrecked
the decal. Yeah that happened. Rest in peace, grandma – it was just a shirt.
But I digress…
What’s important is Dio (who, incidentally, also had
an Italian grandma) is able to make the arcane and illogical seem profound.
When you hear him sing this stuff you’re absolutely convinced it is a truth
without a doubt. It’s only later that you find yourself wondering “what the
hell?”
The album ends on a down note, with “Shoot Shoot” a song with a confused and
meandering melody. The lyrics seem to suggest that if someone points a gun at
you that you should encourage them to go ahead and shoot. I’m pretty sure this
is bad advice.
Despite a weak opening and closing song, “Sacred
Heart” overall is a tight little metal record, clocking in at a restrained nine
tracks and 38 minutes. Long time readers will know that I highly value this
kind of compact record; it lets you grok it a lot easier, and lets each
individual song shine just a little brighter.
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