Having opened the millennium in fine style with the awe-inspiring Magica, change was in the air once more for Dio’s band for Killing The Dragon. With the media’s attention largely diverted away from traditional metal throughout the early 2000s, neither Killing The Dragon nor Master Of The Moon, Dio’s final solo album, got much in the way of respect and, whilst Killing The Dragon is not consistently brilliant, there’s enough material across the two albums to warrant this extensive reissue campaign. As with Angry Machines and Magica (reviewed here), both albums come with bonus discs, although these prove rather less generous in terms of content than the earlier albums, largely because Dio’s attention was already turning to Heaven And Hell, which is a shame because it means that relatively few live cuts from the albums are included.
Killing The Dragon (2002)
Keeping Jimmy Bain (bass) and Simon Wright (drums) from the previous album, Dio appointed Doug Aldritch (Whitesnake) as the new guitarist for 2002’s Killing The Dragon. With Magica having clearly refocused Dio and his band, Killing The Dragon has a tough, metallic sound that harks back to Holy Diver and the title track gets the album off to a cracking start, the rhythm section laying down a rock solid backdrop, over which Dio and Aldritch roam at will. Aldritch’s solo, rendered with great clarity within the mix, is something of a showstopper, announcing his presence with considerable, foot-on-the-monitor flourish. Keeping the pace taught, Along Came A Spider makes good use of Aldritch’s Whitesnake experience, with a bluesier touch augmenting the heavy metal thunder, whilst Dio delivers his vocal with all the power and authority he can muster. It’s a powerful opening that Killing The Dragon offers, make no mistake, and if such classic metal posturing was not entirely in fashion in 2002, it’s certainly found its time now.
By the time that the lengthy Scream comes into view, it’s clear that Dio and his band have found their stride – it boasts a strong riff, a typically blistering vocal from Dio and the sort of addictive melody that you can imagine setting the live show alight. The rather throwaway Better In The Dark passes quickly, which is as well, as it’s somewhat derivative. However, the monstrous ebb and flow of Rock And Roll, with its delicate acoustic introduction and echoes of Kashmir more than makes up for it, as Dio pays tribute to his life-long muse. It’s an album highlight and, although Push, which came complete with a Tenacious-D-Featuring video clip, was the album’s hit, it’s neither as worthy as Rock And Roll nor Scream, suggesting that Spitfire was not entirely on the ball when it came to promoting the record.
Another fine track is in the offing with the slow-paced doom metal of Guilty, a song that serves as a precursor to the sound that Dio would craft with Heaven and Hell, a few years later. The eerie synth and thunderous drums that open the dark-hearted Throw Away Children perfectly set the scene for Dio’s towering vocal. Another lengthy track, the hulking riffs provide a suitably apocalyptic backdrop for Dio’s performance. Even the addition of a children’s choir at the conclusion (usually a recipe for disaster) fails to derail the track, the subtle mixing meaning that it actually serves to make the track rather more unnerving than syrupy. The pace picks up once more on the surging, Deep Purple-esque Before The Fall, before Cold Feet rounds the album out. Unfortunately, it’s not the most effective end, the band opting for a mid-paced plod that offers little to the overall flow of the record.
Killing The Dragon, as I recall, got something of a lukewarm reception upon its release, and it’s not without its faults. Where it hits a peak (on songs like Scream, Rock And Roll, Guilty and Throw Away The Children), it sees Dio at his bombastic best; but there are a few too many filler tracks that seem to pad out the album and it certainly is not as consistent as Magica. Nevertheless, it’s a worthy addition to any Dio fan’s collection.
In terms of bonus material, Killing The Dragon sees something of a dip in quantity and quality unfortunately, with only a six-track live disc taken from the 2002-3 tour, and only two tracks taken from the parent album. It’s a real shame, not least because tracks like Scream and Along Comes A Spider very much deserve live representation, whilst Fever Dreams and Rainbow In The Dark, both bonus tracks on earlier editions of the album, have vanished back into the vaults, making for a completist’s nightmare.
Song selection aside (and who can argue with the majestic Holy Diver as a choice?) the bonus disc has a bootleg air about it, with cardboard drums and fade outs between tracks distracting from the flow. However, if the bonus disc is not flawless, it does at least offer up a live rendition of the majestic Rock And Roll and it’s notable that it more than holds its own next to an epic take on Heaven And Hell. Overall, however, the bonus disc feels rather thrown together and it’s hard to imagine even hardened fans listening more than once or twice to this rather motley collection.
Parent Album: 7.5
Bonus Disc: 5.5
Master Of The Moon (2004)
Master Of The Moon sees another line up shift with Craig Goldy (guitars) returning from the Magica line up and Jeff Pilson (bass) returning for his first album with Dio since Angry machines. The last studio album recorded under Dio’s own name, Masters Of The Moon is another album that seemed to suffer at the hands of the media primarily because traditional heavy metal had fallen out of favour a touch back in 2004, and there’s a grit to the performances that deserved better.
Right from the start, with the whip-crack of One More For The Road, Dio and his band sound fired up and combative, Dio really digging into the track with gusto as Craig Goldy conjures up a riff-storm around him. Even better is the title track, a melodic, metallic beast with huge, doom-laden riffs and a typically compelling vocal. Built around a surprising, AC/DC-esque riff, The End Of The World, has a bluesy swagger to it, but it feels a little out of place and pales in comparison to the chugging Shivers, a track that hits a stone-cold, headbanger’s dream of a groove towards its conclusion, with only the decision to fade the track down, rather than end it definitively, a minor disappointment. Scott Warren (keyboards) comes into his own on The Man Who Would Be King, an initially mournful piece that recalls Deep Purple at their heaviest as it wends its way towards its conclusion.
An album highlight is the strange, keyboard-washed doom of The Eyes, a track that sees Dio and his band experimenting just a touch with the core sound and delivering a strong piece in the process. Happily, it made the bonus disc as a live cut, and it proves to be just as compelling live as it does on record. The fast-paced Living The Lie is classic Dio, although I Am is rather more pedestrian, despite Dio’s convincing vocal performance. Death By Love, however, is a belter and Craig Goldy delivers one hell of a solo, more than making up for its lacklustre predecessor. As with The Eyes, it’s easy to imagine the track taking Dio’s live show by the scruff of the neck and giving it a darn good shake, and it’s just a shame that a live version of this cracking track couldn’t be found. The quality remains high to the very end and In Dreams concludes the album in fine style, bringing both it, and this largely impressive reissue campaign to a close. Along with Magica, Master Of The Moon is pretty much essential Dio and it deserved better at time of release.
Master Of The Moon is a criminally underrated album in Dio’s cannon and is ripe for reassessment thanks to this reissue. Although The End Of The World and I Am fill out the run time somewhat unnecessarily, the remaining eight tracks are pretty much classic Dio, with Shivers, The Eyes and Death By Love all standing out as particular highlights. If you had lost your faith by 2004, head back and see what you missed, Dio was firing on all cylinders throughout this unsung period of his career.
Although the bonus disc for this reissue is even more denuded of content than that of Killing The Dragon, offering a studio track (originally a bonus track on the Japanese edition of the record) and a paltry four live tracks from the 2004/5 tour (only one of which comes from the parent album), it proves to be more than worthy and, despite only boasting five tracks, it still makes for half an hour of material. In its favour, there is an astonishing, ten-minute take on Heaven And Hell that threatens to blow your socks clean off, whilst the live version of The Eyes is absolutely crushing. Moreover, the quality of the audio is a cut above that found on Killing The Dragon and, if you don’t already have a copy of the record, this expanded edition should prove very tempting indeed.
Parent Album: 8.5
Bonus Disc: 7
