What can I say about the almighty Mr. Ronnie James Dio that hasn't been said already? I do enjoy the music of Dio, particularly the first three albums
( 'Holy Diver', 'The Last In Line', and 'Sacred Heart' ), however, I think they started to lose steam beginning with 'Dream Evil'. The FINAL Dio album I bought was 'Lock Up The Wolves', the album where I feel the Dio band became an unfunny parody of itself, to be kind. There was no place to go but back in time, to his credit.
In 1991, the GREATEST thing that Ronnie could do came to fruition: he REJOINED BLACK SABBATH! And out of that came perhaps one of their BEST albums ever with 1992's 'Dehumanizer'. It was a WELCOME return of perhaps the GREATEST "Mach II" ( III; if you want to split hairs, the lineup was Appice, Butler, Dio, and Iommi ) incarnation in the HISTORY of popular music! Unfortunately, this reunion only lasted through one album and tour at the time ( until 2007, and then this lineup reconvened as Heaven And Hell ).
To conclude, I believe Ronnie's greatest musical moments were achieved in Black Sabbath. Respectfully, the music he made in Elf, Rainbow, and Dio NEVER came close to the quality of his output with Sabbath, in my opinion. And that's really saying something! That said, I'll always give credit where it's due. Had it not been for the aforementioned Dio albums and tours I saw between 1984-1988 I NEVER would've heard of Black Sabbath! I'm ALWAYS proud to acknowledge that! The hard rock world hasn't been the same without him since his passing in May 2010!
Ronnie James Dio R.I.P.
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