Will not judge on the scope of this release; do not know if e.g. it was planned long or early prior to the legendary Ronnie James Dio's passing. Do not care either to assume anything, parting ways with the main objective of an album review...which should be music-related topics and only.

"Dio" apparently is a means for the Norwegian singer (with a portfolio spanning from MASTERPLAN, Y. Malmsteen and ARK to AVANTASIA, MILLENNIUM and THE SNAKES plus the Allen/Lande collaboration) to pay tribute to one of his everlasting idols. One point of interest regarding this CD is that Jorn compiles a set consisting of both classic ("Stand Up And Shout", "Don't Talk To Strangers" and "Kill The King") and more obscure ("Shame On The Night", "Night People", "Lord Of The Last Day") numbers from Ronnie James Dio's illustrious career, mostly from his DIO days. This brings forth a good chance for many to get familiar with the mythical Heavy Metal singer's 'invisible' side.

The musicianship is solid and approved by all means; the playing is tight and the sound does justice to the originals' volume. Jorn Lande is a great singer excessively influenced by undying Rock/Metal voices such as Ronnie James Dio, David Coverdale and Ian Gillan and I was prepared he'd successfully carry the load of singing Dio tunes non-stop. His voice along with the general sound of the album - and that's another 'plus' - gives the tracklist a more personal meaning without omitting from the original eerie. The man's already showed how good he is when covering songs from the 70s/80s era, nonetheless.

As a personal "thank you", Jorn and his band penned a song called "Song For Ronnie James" which is the first one in the list. Clocking to eight minutes, the main characteristic of this 'chant' is the crawling heavy familiar Dio tempo dressed in notable melodies, ceremonial/evil or melodic/rocking it does not matter, keeping the interest of the listener from the very star. The duration could raise some questions but that's a personal plan in the composing process of the song from the band anyway. I'd like to check the lyrics when the normal product comes out, by the way.

"This great man has affected my life and career in such a way that without his presence, I would not have become the artist I am today". Let's keep this in mind; Ronnie James Dio's legacy will forever live on - that's for sure - and Jorn Lande has done a very good job in this tribute album.