Rising (Rainbow) vs Holy Diver (Dio) - MAW 3

Enough with all the popular bands. Today, I'm going to be reviewing some albums from lesser known bands, both of which were fronted by the greatest metal singer of all time, Ronnie James Dio. Both of these bands, Rainbow and Dio, were really good, creating great songs like Gates of Babylon, Kill The King, Dream Evil, and Lock up the Wolves. While Dio had some pretty good songs, I kinda like Rainbow because of Ritchie Blackmore helping create great songs. However, this is only about one of their albums, and not the entire band, and only one can win this Metal Album War. Today is Rising by Rainbow and Holy Diver by Dio, both led by Ronnie James Dio, and had some good metal hits.

Album 1: Rising by Rainbow

I have to admit, this album has some genius-like songwriting by both Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio. Both members have done their best to write great songs like Stargazer, A Light in the Black, and Tarot Woman. Stargazer had an symphony-like sound with those unique scales, thus making it probably my favorite metal song of all time. It's pure genius of both songwriters, as not only the melody and sound was good, but Ritchie Blackmore had a really good guitar solo, that keeps building up until it gets to the high point, the best part of the song, right before Dio starts singing again, and the song goes back to where it started.

Tarot Woman was also a great song to start off the album, as it had one of my favorite intros in any metal song, or even the album. It was like an orchestra beginning a one-hour long symphony, but with more of a modern, heavier sound. After one minute, Ritchie Blackmore's guitar riffs start fading in, heading into one of the best metal albums of all time, and good singing. This just makes it one of the best tracks in the entire album, but has competition. Run With The Wolf, Starstruck, and Do You Close Your Eyes were also some pretty good early metal tracks with a classic rock style, and some good sound. The tracks weren't very unique, but did sound completely different, and diversity of songs is very important in an album, and you've heard me mention this variety of music being a good thing a lot in previous Metal Album Wars episodes, or when I reviewed some Iron Maiden albums. Diversity is important in an album, as one of those albums like Slayer's Reign In Blood, which is good, is not that great due to all the songs sounding the same except probably Raining Blood.

Now let's get back to the album itself. The last track I have left to review on this album is A Light in The Black, the final track, but was just about 14 seconds shy of being the longest in the album. In this song, every member gets to show their good talent. The drumming was really good in the entire song, but Stargazer had the better drum intro. Their is also a very long instrumental with really good solos, and some pretty good singing, although it isn't the best in the album. There are other songs with long instrumentals like Burn by Deep Purple and 21st Century Schizoid Man by King Crimson which were both better than this song, but A Light in the Black is still a good song. Anyways, I better move on to the other album before I forget it.

Album 2: Holy Diver by Dio

Just by looking at my new profile picture, which I am happy with and not planning on changing it anytime soon, makes you think that I'm going to pick this album to win, but you never know. Rising does have some good songs, but this one does as well. As an added bonus, this album is one of my favorites of all time, with only a few albums being better, and this is my favorite debut album by any Metal band, better than Metallica's Kill Em All, and Black Sabbath's Self-Titled album.

There are also some great songs on here. Stand Up and Shout is a great thrash-like song, similar to Invaders by Iron Maiden, which both songs are equally as good and I can't decide which is better, and Invaders is actually one of my top 10 favorite Iron Maiden songs, by the way. Surprised? Most of you thought that I wouldn't like a song that's so short and not having any build up to it, but I actually do. Then comes Holy Diver, the most popular track in this album, but not the best. The intro was good, and it seemed like one of those calm intros, until it suddenly starts playing. It's a good song, but pretty weak compared to Stargazer. This song did contain some of Dio's best singing in the entire album, and I liked the "Gotta Get Away!" part some. The solo was also really good, and the song itself was well-written, even though Ritchie wasn't there to help.

Gypsy and Caught in the Middle were both great heavy metal tracks, but seem to be some of the weakest tracks in the album. Don't Talk to Strangers was a great song, and had a great intro, with some of Ronnie James Dio's singing. Straight Through the Heart was a great classic, and while it may sound somewhat like Holy Diver, It's just as good. I don't know why, but I guess because it had a better riff, and was played in a better key for heavy metal music of this subgenre. Invisible was also another great track with a good intro, and one of my favorite solos in any Ronnie James Dio band. Rainbow in the Dark was a good heavy metal classic, but my favorite song in the album has to go to Shame on the Night. The intro just seems unique. I don't know a lot of songs that have wolf howls in the intro, or even in the song itself. It just seems pretty creative to me, proving that Ronnie James Dio is a great heavy metal writer. During the end of the song, is also a great outro with that choir-like singing, and I guess it's time for what we've all been waiting for.

The Verdict

Rising - 95/100
Holy Diver - 97/100

Until I listened to Holy Diver, Rainbow seemed to be the Dio-fronted band that I liked the best. However, the debut album of Dio seemed to change all that, because it turned out to be one of my favorite metal albums of all time, better than Ride the Lightning and The Number of the Beast, which were the winners of the Previous Metal Album Wars. However, seeing this album not in the top 10 for the best Metal albums was just sickening. Master of Puppets was above that album twice, for some stupid reason, but that doesn't make it a better album. Rising was good as well, but I just liked the songs from Holy Diver much better.

Now that I've said all the good stuff about a singer so good it rivaled Freddie Mercury as the greatest singer of all time, it's time that I finish the Metal Album Wars for now. I will be seeing you later.

Comments

Good comparison. - Skullkid755