DIO Tribute Loaded with Heavy Hitters

RONNIE JAMES DIO

This Is Your Life

Rhino Records, 2014

Tribute CD’s can be legendarily hit or miss affairs, if I can quote or paraphrase myself, or someone who I at least agree with. So even though this was loaded with notable heavy hitting and credible artists, I approached this with some trepidation.

To bring everyone reading this up to speed, Ronnie James Dio was responsible fronting Rainbow, replacing Ozzy in Black Sabbath, leading his own band, Dio, Black Sabbath once again, and then Heaven & Hell. This CD covers over thirty years of his storied career.

Anthrax and Adrenaline Mob pay their respects to Dio’s profound imprint and memorable time with Black Sabbath, with “Neon Knights” and “The Mob Rules” respectively. “I” from Black Sabbath’s Dehumanizer album is played by a band featuring his longtime bassist, Jimmy Bain.

In fact there’s quite a few Dio Alumni who surface on this disc. The final line-up of Dio’s solo band, Simon Wright, Craig Goldy, Rudy Sarzo and Scott Warren, back Glenn Hughes on “Catch The Rainbow,” from Rainbow’s 1975 debut. The finished result is stunning and surprising for being true to form. In fact, most of the acts play it fairly straight, taking few liberties with the material. Presumably because they could find little room to make personal improvements.

The Scorpions, legendary for over playing everything not of their own making, do a great job on the restrained “Temple of the King.” Biff Byford of Saxon sits in with Motörhead on a memorable roadhouse reading of “Starstruck.”

Metallica gets a nine minute medley of Rainbow songs at the end, because they can, and if you still like Metallica, it’s o-k, or whatever. Personally, I think they would have been better served by focusing on one song (“Kill the King,” y’all), and just knocked that sucker out of the park.

Dio himself gets the last word here. With a vocal and piano arrangement of the title track, “This Is Your Life.” A fitting tribute to a formidable life spent on stage.