Holy Diver

It had to be around 1984 and I can vividly recall hanging out in Kayle Kiener's warehouse listening to music that we had each brought in as examples of the "kinds of songs we wanted to write". Kayle was the metal head in the group and he had a cassette of Dio's "Holy Diver". I knew of Dio from his days with Black Sabbath after Ozzy left, but had not heard of this solo project. The first song that stuck out to me was "Rainbow in the Dark". Of course, that song went on to become one the 4 or 5 standard tunes that every guitar player in the day learned to play. Holy Diver was also one of the early metal albums to really incorporate synths, which eventually became the norm in 80's metal. Dio was one of those artists who wasn't super well known in the mainstream, but every fucking guy who was even remotely into metal or played metal music not only knew who he was, but regarded him as a metal god.

Ronnie James Dio died yesterday at the age of 67.