While by no means maligned, 1985’s Sacred Heart is very much considered the third-of-three in the Dio band’s holy trinity of releases — Holy Diver (discussed here) in 1983, The Last in Line (discussed here) in 1984 and Sacred Heart in 1985; successive landmarks and, as an era, a commercial peak that Dio wouldn’t hit again — all massive and ongoing in their influence. And fair enough. Some of its highlight material, songs like “Hungry for Heaven” or “King of Rock and Roll” (which were both issued as singles) is also its most radio friendly, playing to a broader audience after the success of the first two albums. I might add “Just Another Day” to that list, though it’s more of a rocker and the later vocal layering is a thing to appreciate. But cuts like “Another Lie,” “Like the Beat of a Heart,” and “Fallen Angels” and “Shoot Shoot” at the end are bruisers, with grittier tone in Vivian Campbell‘s guitar able to transpose itself onto the rush of “King of Rock and Roll” or the keyboardy grandiosity of “Sacred Heart” and “Rock and Roll Children,” to drive a part or take a back seat to Ronnie James Dio‘s vocals, complement Claude Schnell‘s keys or set up bassist Jimmy Bain and drummer Vinny Appice with a righteous classic headbanger groove, and Sacred Heart does all of that, fluidly and with purpose.

The thing about it is there isn’t much that it introduces that’s new to the actual sound of the band. The Last in Line expanded on what Holy Diver had on offer, with a conversation happening between songs like “Egypt (The Chains are On)” and “Holy Diver” itself as much as Black Sabbath‘s “Heaven and Hell” from when Dio fronted doom’s progenitors from 1979-’82, and Sacred Heart continues that conversation. But “Sacred Heart” appears second in the tracklisting, precisely where both “Holy Diver” and “The Last in Line” could be found, after a raucous opener, and where Holy Diver offered “Rainbow in the Dark” for late-album punch and The Last in Line put “Egypt (The Chains are On)” in the role of big-finish-closer, Sacred Heart offers “Just Another Day,” “Fallen Angels” and “Shoot Shoot” back-to-back-to-back, all of which have something to offer listeners and fans either of the Dio band or Ronnie James Dio‘s work more broadly, be it in Sabbath, alongside Ritchie Blackmore in Rainbow, in Elf before that, etc., but none of which is a landmark even at the level of “Egypt (The Chains are On),” which is preceded by “Mystery” and “Eat Your Heart Out” on The Last in Line.

But even as third-of-three, the bulk of what Sacred Heart does remains inarguable. The title-track is forward-looking enough to the rougher edges Dio‘s vocal delivery would take on in the ’90s, the coming of a new kind of heavy rock, while “King of Rock and Roll” lives up to Rainbow‘s “Long Live Rock and Roll” or Dio‘s own “We Rock” in putting the live experience and energy at the forefront. There’s even a crowd sample at the start of “King of Rock and Roll,” to underscore the point. And some of what Sacred Heart does best is in its biggest moments reaches further than Dio could on either Holy Diver or The Last in Line. “Rock and Roll Children” and “Hungry for Heaven,” right next to each other at the end of side A and the start of side B, expand the melodic reach of the heavy metal genre, not just for Dio as a singer or the band as a whole. Sure, glam was ascendant in the mid-’80s, but so was thrash, and Dio were neither; if you wanted to place this record in a niche today, would it be classic heavy rock, proto-power metal and doom? Sacred Heart could never catch listeners off guard and create a sensation in the way Holy Diver did, but when it came out in 1985, it had still only been two years since the debut. While a lot of the moves the band makes are familiar in the context of the two LPs before, Dio must have seemed unstoppable at least to some degree.

And yeah, the back half of the record has some filler. You might recognize “Just Another Day” or “Fallen Angels” when they’re on, but I doubt you’re already hearing them in your head just by reading the titles (and if you are, by all means, I welcome your comment giving yourself credit for it; well earned). Consider “Like the Beat of a Heart” here next to “Straight Through the Heart” on Holy Diver and you’ll see what I mean. But at least it’s heavy. If you’re gonna have filler, make it rock. Dio would’ve been grinding out tours upon tours at this point, and of course this lineup would unravel after this record, leading to a revamped Dio band issuing Dream Evil in 1987 with new vigor, so if the band was tired when it was time to knuckle down and pen album three, fair enough for it not being their greatest achievement in craft, but as a band, the lineup of Dio, Goldy, Schnell, Bain and Appice were never tighter or more in command of their material. Sacred Heart is a dynamic listen, able to evoke both a sense of ’70s strut in “Shoot Shoot” and a feeling of epic urgency in “Rock and Roll Children,” to ride a hard-hitting groove or set up high-stakes dramas one after the other. Sometimes both.

It’s true Sacred Heart doesn’t do a ton that Holy Diver and/or The Last in Line don’t do, but at this point that’s part of why I like it. It’s more of that thing. I’ll readily admit to going to the first half more than the second, but listening front-to-back to its 39-minute entirety, it feels like a necessary end to a trilogy. You wouldn’t have ended The Lord of the Rings without crowning Aragorn, right? Maybe there’s a bit of reaffirmation going on here — okay, more than “maybe” — but there’s expansion too around what’s been done before, and even as third-of-three in the Dio Trinity, it remains in a class of its own.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

—

Definitely picking Dio for some comfort to end the week. Which was not comfortable. Sad. Angry. Confused. Hurt. But not comfortable.

I’ve gotten so used to feeling disappointed in America that I forgot it can sting. Did we learn nothing in the last eight years? Do these people, people who look, sound and talk like me — my county went republican by 9,000 fucking votes! 9,000! — really just hate women and black people that much? Is that who we are?

Yeah, I guess it is. I guess we’re fascists. I’m not surprised at how the election turned out, but if you’re the type to drink liberal tears, I’ve got plenty for you. I genuinely think the country and the world are about to become worse places to be because of this result. The environment alone.

It’s astonishing. But expected? And consistent? With awfulness? And the last 50 years of the right in this country dismantling public education, actively dumbing down a populace while teaching them not to trust government? But isn’t that just about racism too?

Shit. Would a black woman have been so fucking terrible? Can someone tell me why?

People are mad about the direction the country is going in. Whatever that fucking means; it’s a poll question that gets cited all the time. So people are mad. Look back at every president we’ve ever had and look at who was running for the democrats. That’s new.

I swear it’s gonna blow when Nikki Fucking Haley becomes the first female US president. Our own Thatcher; embarrassingly late to the game.

But yeah, that was pretty much where the week stopped in my head — Tuesday night. Wednesday I didn’t wanna do or say or think fucking anything. Just dissociating — a full dedication of my mental and emotional faculties to not processing what had just happened or what it meant for me and my family. Yesterday was sad. Today’s sad and kinda angry and confused. We started paperwork to change The Pecan’s name, which is unaligned with her gender on her birth certificate, passport, etc., so there are ducks to get in a row there before these states’ rights advocates get their hands on federal proclamation power again. I don’t trust New Jersey being blue for a minute. These people are fucking psychopaths. And they’re in your neighborhood.

Have a great and safe weekend. Hopefully you’re somewhere else, but stay safe out there regardless and don’t forget to hydrate. I’m back Monday for more of this, which today feels somewhat empty as a thing to do in the face of such dark, stupid times.

FRM.

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Tags: Dio, Dio Sacred Heart, Sacred Heart, Warner Bros. Records

This entry was posted on Friday, November 8th, 2024 at 11:20 am and is filed under Bootleg Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.