The artist: Ronnie James Dio was an icon in both heavy metal and hard rock. Ronnie was in several bands before forming Elf which is where he put his foot in the world of rock and roll. After Elf disbanded, Ritchie Blackmore approached Dio to be the vocalist for his new band Rainbow. Dio left Rainbow after musical differences with Ritchie Blackmore. Dio disagreed with the wind of changes and found himself replacing Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath. His time with Black Sabbath in the 80s was short but sweet with Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules. Dio's next musical direction was to form a band of his own with Vinny Appice and release Holy Diver which the title track, Stand Up and Shout and Rainbow in the Dark have become metal anthems.
Today marks the day Ronnie left us all after a long battle with stomach cancer. 2010 was a bleak year for heavy metal with losses such as Dio and Peter Steele from Type O Negative. To pay a tribute to the holy diver and the man who popularized the devil's horns in rock music, here is metal song of the week for Ronnie James Dio.
The album: The Last in Line is the follow-up to the classic Holy Diver. Although The Last in Line doesn't quite a hold a candle to Holy Diver, it's still a great album with yet more classic Dio songs such as We Rock, The Last in Line, I Speed at Night and the epic album closer Egypt (The Chains Are On) that shouldn't be underestimated.
The song: Egypt (The Chains Are On) addresses the exploitation of the people of ancient Egypt. The song starts off with an oriental intro which perfectly fits with a song about Egypt. The riffs are slow in this epic number but not everything can be rushed with fast riffs. This is one of the slower songs from The Last in Line and it's a song that finds the right tempo. One of the highlights from this song has to be the following lyrical section with "You've seen them walking on the water / You've seen flying through the sky / They were frightening in the darkness / They had rainbows in their eyes" This is where Dio truly shows the beauty of his vocal talent as well as great songwriting. The last line with "They had rainbows in their eyes" is hard to avoid relating it to Rainbow and be seen as a nod to the band. The solo following this section has an Egyptian feel to it which is why the slow tempo of the song is highly appropriate.
Egypt (The Chains Are On) is one of the most epic works by Ronnie James Dio and although he passed away a year ago, this is legacy he left us with and we have to be grateful for what he has done in the realm of heavy metal.
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