Just doing myself favors here, really. I was struggling to come up with something to close out the week, and, well, I was at Freak Valley last week and “Holy Diver” was aired between the songs at some point, and that’s about all it takes — and it takes less, actually — to put me in a Dio mindframe. This collection of two aired-on-BBC-I-think full sets from Monsters of Rock in Donington, UK, recorded, as the title suggests, in 1983 after the release of Holy Diver (discussed here) and in 1987 following the fourth album, Dream Evil, and the lineup change that brought Craig Goldy to guitar in place of Vivian Campbell.

The Dio/Campbell schism, happening between the sets on discs 1 and 2 and after the guitarist and vocalist made three landmark records together in Holy Diver, 1984’s The Last in Line (discussed here) or 1985’s Sacred Heart, is essential heavy metal history, as Campbell went on to greater pop success with Def Leppard, and Ronnie James Dio, bassist Jimmy Bain, drummer Vinny Appice and keyboardist Claude Schnell moved somewhat unsteadily into the 1990s, in which the glories of 1983-1986 would prove elusive for records like 1990’s Lock Up the Wolves, the abidingly bleak Strange Highways, which was released in 1994 following Dio‘s reunion with Black Sabbath for the 1992 Dehumanizer (discussed here) LP and tour, and 1996’s Angry Machines.

Those albums have their appeal in the darker atmospheres and harder crunch of their production style, and certainly Dio found new footing as a band later in their studio work, with 2000’s Magica embracing fantasy storytelling in a way that could only be called a fit for Ronnie James Dio‘s style of lyrics, and the final two albums, 2002’s Killing the Dragon and 2004’s Master of the Moon (discussed here), acting as an entryway to a reinvigorated classic metal sound for a new generation of listeners that, I don’t mind saying, included myself. I was not quite yet two years old when the 1983 set was record (and, extrapolating, not quite six four years later), so yeah, I missed it first time through. It’s true: I wasn’t cool enough to listen to Dio in diapers. Behold my great shame.

Alas, if you want to drown any such sorrows or perhaps obliterate them like so much dust blown off by the air moving through gargantuan stacks of public address speakers, At Donington UK: Live 1983 & 1987 will almost certainly get the job done. Its two sets are heavy metal revelry of the finest order, a fervent charge of triumphant emotion and fist-in-the-air songcraft. Performance-wise, this era of Dio is a significant portion of why he’s considered to have been one of the greatest and most distinct voices in metal of any stripe or microniche, and the band behind him in 1983 delivered with the intensity of purpose that every act working together only gets one shot at: the first impression. Imagine seeing Dio in 1983 and waiting patiently through “Straight Through the Heart” to get to “Children of the Sea.” Play the old stuff! Dude’s touring for his first album. Ha. What a career.

And I guess I’m assuming that career doesn’t need to be recounted here, Ronnie James Dio having moved from fronting teen groups to Elf to Rainbow to Black Sabbath to Dio between about 1967 and 1983, a period of just 16 years that resulted in some of heavy metal and rock’s pinnacle moments, but listening to the 1983 set, the Dio band sound hungry. They play Rainbow‘s “Stargazer” and it’s fast. Tearing into it. “Heaven and Hell” gets the same stretched-out treatment — “…And a big black shape looked down at me…” — that it got when the Dio-fronted incarnation of Black Sabbath played it live (also the band Heaven and Hell a couple decades later) and they even work a minute or so of “Starstruck” into the big finish with “Man on the Silver Mountain.” Dio‘s own material is somewhat frontloaded into the set, with “Stand Up and Shout” and “Straight Through the Heart” opening — the former was the staple opener — and an especially killer “Rainbow in the Dark” and “Holy Diver” on the other side of “Children of the Sea.” After “Holy Diver” it’s all Sabbath and Rainbow, plus drum and guitar solos. That’s the majority of the show.

Dio as an act trying to establish itself.

In 1987, they clearly had done so. The excesses and dragon-slaying of Dio‘s live shows supporting Sacred Heart are well documented, and there are certainly videos and bootlegs out there of the Dream Evil era as well, but the 1987 Donington set tells the story. “Children of the Sea,” “Heaven and Hell” and “Man on the Silver Mountain” still feature as they always would, and “Neon Knights” and “Long Live Rock and Roll” join them, the latter a suitable complement to “Rock and Roll Children” just before it, but the sense of ‘the Dio show’ comes through particularly in relation to just a couple years earlier, when the set was shorter, probably the spot on the bill lower, and the Dio band had less of their own material. In 1987, “All the Fools Sailed Away,” a reprise of “The Last in Line” and “Rainbow in the Dark,” which was a mega-hit, close, and you don’t think twice about it. In 1983, they didn’t even finish with Dio songs.

Both sets are representative, and set alongside each other, they show the progression of Dio as a live act. The 1983 band is rawer, more blunt-force, while in 1987 songs like “Rock and Roll Children” and “Dream Evil,” which leads off, and “All the Fools Sailed Away” offset the tempo thrust of “Neon Knights” and “The Last in Line” taps into a grandeur that sits gorgeously next to a flourish-added “Children of the Sea” and “Holy Diver” and “Heaven and Hell” — a kind of epic quadrilogy tucked into the middle of the set; I have to think that if only those four songs were played as they are here and that was all that was on the disc, no one would’ve been able to complain — and it’s not exactly like “Man on the Silver Mountain,” “All the Fools Sailed Away” or “Rainbow in the Dark” are wanting for scope. Hell, even “Naked in the Rain” gets its due treatment, Goldy shredding a solo right in the middle before they return to the brooding, mid-paced, then-radio-friendly chorus.

What do we learn from At Donington UK: Live 1983 & 1987? Mostly stuff already known. This was a great band led by a generational talent at what’s widely acknowledged as the peak of their power. That it’s good shouldn’t be a surprise; if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t have been released. Underneath that, consider the growth in presence, in attention to detail — the little flourishes of keyboard and between-song banter; the professionalism of the show; Dio‘s sheer command of his voice on stage and the no-more-hurried-than-they-want-to-be band behind him — the absolute demand for whatever maximum volume you can give it, and just enjoy for what it is. The first of these shows took place 40 summers ago. You and I and everyone we know are part of stories longer than ourselves, these and many others.

Think of that as you break out of this week and into your weekend with horns raised, head banging and feet stomping. Thanks for reading.

—

Today is The Pecan’s final day of preschool. Pre-K graduation, as it were. She wanted to wear The Patient Mrs.’ graduation cap — “Mommy’s square hat” — but I told her that it’s at Mommy’s work, which I think has the added advantage of being true as well as convenient. She also this afternoon will receive her yellow belt in tae kwon do after a roiling shitshow of a belt test on Tuesday. You’d say it couldn’t have been that bad if she passed, and that’s true, but doesn’t account necessarily for the generosity of apirit on the part of the kind folks at Cho’s Legacy in Morristown. At one point watching I had to get up and leave. Regular class has been a similar wreck. She’s trying, but can’t hold still or really pay attention beyond a certain threshold, and the longer she’s at a thing, the smaller that threshold becomes.

But yes, change is in the air, which itself is nothing new. The Patient Mrs. and I had a meeting yesterday with ‘the team’ at the school where The Pecan will start kindergarten in the Fall, to talk about behavior stuff as well as the issue of gender around which — according to what we hear from the pre-K team at the current school — most behavioral issues are based. I was the only male in the room, and if you’ve never been a guy in that situation, it’s a good experience to not be talked to but to be present. Mom is the automatic key-in for those conversations. It’s not something I take personally at this point, but one does work to make their voice heard, and I did do that, arguing in behalf of taking my child seriously when she asserts she’s a girl because, well, she’s fucking serious about it.

And we’re getting used to the pronoun swap he for she. I cringe when my mother and others get it wrong. It’s amazing how generational the acceptance seems to be. The behaviorist in her 20s didn’t even blink. The school counselor in her 50s tentatively wondered if it was for real and permanent given the mercurial nature of children in general. I said that 99 times out of 100 I might agree but that this is the 100th kid. And even if at some point The Pecan embraces the gender with which she was saddled at birth, which honestly would be unexpected at this point, I would every time err on the side of supporting my kid and hope that the professionals engaged to do likewise actually do. That these things need to be said out loud is emblematic of the primitivism of the times in which we live, but I’ll readily acknowledge it’s a transition for all of us, not just the kid. We’re getting there. We’re doing our best.

Next week is kind of in the air. I had saved spots for Maryland Doom Fest coverage but we’re also having our kitchen floor done and I think next weekend might be my wife’s grandmother’s memorial service, at which I’m delivering the eulogy/readings — my understanding is I’m kind of the MC, so yes I’ll break out the Flava Flav clockchain I keep for these occasions — so yeah, things are open a bit on what’s to come coverage-wise for reviews and whatnot. If I get writeups done for Mammatus and Khanate, well, that would be a win as much in 2023 as in 2007. Funny how time works.

But I’ll figure that shit out, and have two really three bios to work on in the interim. I think much of next week will be spent in Connecticut, but I don’t know when we’ll go or how long we’ll actually stay with The Patient Mrs.’ mother at her beach place, which is always nice, never stress-free, and always nice, in that order. We’re having brunch tomorrow and I think playing Zelda in a group setting, with Slevin, who is a generally wonderful human being. On a personal note, I also haven’t seen yesterday’s season premiere for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and I hope to rectify that as soon as possible.

Whatever you’re up to, I wish you a great and safe weekend. Have fun, hydrate, watch your head, try to enjoy some good music if you can. Remember to breathe, remember to stretch. And thanks for reading.

FRM.

The Obelisk Collective on Facebook

The Obelisk Radio

The Obelisk merch