I know that the significance of Holy Diver Live is not that it’s a compilation like the one that I love so much. The thing is, the songs that I loved most on that compilation were from Holy Diver: “Rainbow in the Dark” and the title track. Of course I went out and bought Holy Diver in its entirety and that classic would seem to be the natural comparison point for Holy Diver Live (although the second disc contains work from all areas of Dio’s career including a quite enjoyable version of Sabbath’s “Heaven and Hell” and Rainbow’s “Long Live Rock and Roll”). Recorded at the Astoria in London, Holy Diver Live consists of a completely different instrumental crew than the original: instead of Vivian Campbell, Jimmy Bain and Vinny Appice, we get Doug Aldrich (guitar), Rudy Sarzo (bass), Simon Wright (drums) and Scott Warren (keyboards). These veterans, especially the fluidity of Doug Aldrich’s guitar, do a superb job playing that’s highly true to the original songs, including the monster riff in “Holy Driver” that drove me insane for weeks and the keyboard intro to “Rainbow in the Dark” that I’ll admit to still loving. As with all live albums, there’s the obligatory drum solo (here in “Gypsy”) that almost drove me to madness and the solo indulgences that help stretch “Shame on the Night” from it’s original 5 minutes into a 15 minute exercise (there are also a lot of atmospheric parts). In the end though, Ronnie James Dio’s iconic voice is what really matters on any Dio CD. The man is around 60 years old and has been in the music business for 5 decades, so how does he do here?

Overall, he does a pretty good job. I’m not going to lie and say that he hasn’t aged at all: he certainly does struggle through some parts. It’s the most noticeable in fast paced numbers like “Stand Up and Shout” and also in “Straight through the Heart.” The man has lost a lot of the operatic power that mesmerized my ears when I first heard him. He sings pretty much in a mid range throughout the CD with quite a bit of snarling and sometimes he even seems out of breath; nonetheless, you have to give the guy credit. He certainly doesn’t sound bad (hell, he’s still better than a whole lot of vocalists in metal who don’t even try singing), but his pacing with the music is off just enough to distract the listener. All in all, I just wish this historic project had been attempted 10 years earlier. But that’s wishful thinking…

written by Kevin Penner

Playing time: 113.50