It was starting to rain on the night that they first decided
It was blinding with snow on the night that they ran away
They were found in the dark but they never returned just like somebody slammed the door bang yeah
She was meant to be wild he was nearly a child but they only could feel each other
They were paper and fire angel and liar the devil of one another
Then they were thrown to the ground wiht a terrible sound just like somebody broke a heart
Rock'n'roll children alone again rock'n'roll children without a friend but they got rock'n'roll(Rock 'N' Roll Children - Sacred Heart, 1985)
If we're all rock 'n' roll children then mother Rock has definitely slept with one hell of a lot of men. I could come up with tens, hundreds of Rock fathers but only a few names really stand higher (even a bit) than all the rest. Among these names is without any possible doubt that of Ronnie James Dio.
It's really hard to get your act together and write an album review on a person who's...a holy diver with a sacred heart, who's never been the last in line; who's dreamt evil, opened his eyes, locked up the wolves and went out searching for strange highways. What's to say about a Rock/Metal legend who's been part of Rock/Metal's best moments ever? So I'll just get down to reviewing his new album, Master Of The Moon because if I let myself loose I might end up writing a book instead of an album review.
It's only been two years since Dio's last album, Killing The Dragon, which was quite good and it's been four years since Magica which in my opinion was the least enjoyable R.J.D. album probably in his entire career. So an album every two years is not bad at all. It can get risky though because, theoretically speaking, if you've got 3 albums released in a 5 year period, they can't all possibly be THAT good, can they? This is sort of an informal rule in the music business with only a few bands/artists escaping it from time to time. R.J.D. usually never goes under that rule but as I said, he did with Magica. Ok, so we have a slightly bad album and a really good album (Killing The Dragon)...and Master Of The Moon. So, where does this brand new album exactly stand on?
Ten tracks, all mid-tempo but heavy, under a really good production (oh well, how could the production NOT be good when we're talking about Dio) and a familiar voice that hasn't changed a bit and keeps on delivering evil dreams.
All tracks (starting from the title track) are lyrically surrounded by that same mysterious mist R.J.D. likes using so much. Master Of The Moon for instance starts with "and then you dream of a world with only windows - Inside you, you can hide you, you know. These kind of lyrics always were a Dio trademark and well it's quite a relief to see he's always troubled on how to trouble our minds even more! Especially when there are a lot of crappy lyrics roaming around in music-land.
Together with longtime partner Craig Goldie (guitar), drummer Simon Wright (ex-AC/DC), keyboardist Scott Warren and bassist Jeff Pilson (War & Peace, ex-Dokken), R.J.D. recorded an album which will surely please the die hard Dio fans.
But what makes it an album more probable to be approved by the Dio fans more than everybody else? Are the musicians bad? Nope, they're definitely not bad but on the contrary, they're all experienced musicians. Their playing is simple yet heavy, hence this is Heavy Metal we're talking about, not ProPower Metal. Probably fans of a higher and more complicated pace won't be that thrilled by this release.
Is R.J.D.'s voice bad? As I said, his voice has never changed a bit, no matter how old he is - it's as if he's defied time. I guess that for most of us this is a great thing but I'm sure there also are a lot of people who can't accept things that don't change, aspects that remain that stable (like his voice or style). People tend to get bored of stable qualities even if these qualities are good. I guess it sort of haves to do with the times we live in which are...quite unstable.
Nevertheless, fact is that Master Of The Moon is a very good album though I don't know how time-resistant it might prove to be. That's something only time will tell. For the moment let's just open our windows and gaze at the dark-veiled night sky above us, let's just gaze at the moon - I'm sure we'll all see him up there, cause he's The Master Of The Moon!
P.S. Though the album was recorded with bass guitar player Jeff Pilson, Rudy Sarzo was called in for Dio's touring lineup.
- Album Highlights: Master Of The Moon, Shivers, Living The Lie, In Dreams