Classic Rock Albums Revisited: On The Record
Dio, Holy Diver
(Warner Bros., 1983) Produced by Ronnie James Dio

By the time his self-named group released Holy Diver in 1983, vocalist Ronnie James Dio had already made two successful forays into stardom. As lead singer with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow in the mid Seventies, he performed on four of the group's groundbreaking albums and help define the sound of heavy metal. Then in 1979, when Ozzy Osbourne departed Black Sabbath, Dio was tapped to replace him, a move that revitalized Sabbath and resulted in two successful albums, 1980's Heaven and Hell and 1981's Mob Rules.

With Holy Diver, Dio launched the third and most successful phase of his career, and he did it in spades: Holy Diver was an immediate success, and spawned the hit single "Rainbow In The Dark."

Dio formed in 1982 after conflicts within Sabbath caused Ronnie and drummer Vinny Appice to leave the heavy metal pioneers. For bass duties, the duo turned to Jimmy Bain, whom Dio had already played with in Rainbow. Bain, in turn, recommended an Irish shredder named Vivian Campbell to fill the guitar spot.

The band contacted Campbell, who flew down to London for an audition. Dio had already written Holy Diver's title song and its standout track "Don't Talk To Strangers," and the group dug into the material enthusiastically. According to the singer, the chemistry between the trio and Campbell was "magical."

"Viv was absolutely perfect," Dio says. "He took chances and played with incredible speed. Viv's playing was so mature for a guy just 20 years old. There were too many guitarists in the U.S. who were trying to sound like Eddie Van Halen, and I wanted someone along the lines of the European-styled guitarists I'd worked with."

"From the start I knew Ronnie was fond of my playing," Campbell recalls. "I was impressionable and very much in awe of meeting rock starts, I pretty much kept to myself and was very malleable. I suppose that suited Ronnie just fine because he was so used to working opinionated guitarists like Ritchie Blackmore and Tommy Iommi."

A few weeks after the first rehearsal, Viv joined Dio, Bain, and Appice at Sound City Studios in L.A., where the band wrote, rehearsed and recorded Holy Diver.

"We spent about three months intensively writing and rehearsing the songs," Dio explains. "The material was so tight by the time we recorded the album, and the band's enthusiasm so high, that the album came together pretty easily. The songs are good because they're easy to grab onto, yet there are lots of dynamics as well."

Although the Van Halen brand of metal was ruling the day, Dio stuck to a more established style of metal for their debut. Says Campbell, "When we were doing Holy Diver, Def Leppard was doing Pyromania, which is much more progressive sounding. And bands like Van Halen were injecting humour and personality into their hard rock. Ronnie, on the other hand, was singing about dungeons, dragons, and rainbows with big, heavy half-time riffs that sounded like Black Sabbath."

"I like the movement of big, heavy chords and songs in minor keys," Dio explains. "I enjoy writing about medieval themes because you can take incredible liberties and let your imagination run wild, and these topics fit well within the minor scope of the songs. I don't write love songs."

Upon its release, Holy Diver quickly climbed the charts, and Dio were soon headlining arenas. With the group's follow-up, 1984's The Last In Line, Campbell became one of the world's hottest guitarists, but he recorded just one more studio album with Dio, 1985's Sacred Heart. He later joined Whitesnake and is now in Def Leppard.

Holy Diver was certified Platinum in 1989 and is the best selling album in Dio's back catalog. Given the record's success, it's not surprising that when Dio toured behind his last album, 2000's Magica, his set list included numerous selections from Holy Diver. "The songs from that album are probably the most requested songs in the band's repertoire," Dio remarks. The singer is currently wrapping up his band's next album (tentatively scheduled for a June release). Campbell, meanwhile, is working on a new Def Leppard album.

"Holy Diver is such a great of the band's history," says Dio, "but I'm always looking forward to my next endeavor."

- Joe Lalaina
Guitar World April 2002, Creed Cover