DIO — The Last in Line (review)

Album · 1984 · Heavy Metal

2.5/5 · 2010-05-10
SouthSideoftheSky

Evil or divine? A bit of both actually!

After the success of Dio’s first album, it seemed as if Ronnie James could do no wrong – first Rainbow, then Black Sabbath then a classic album as a leader of his own band. Musically, Holy Diver was a kind of crossover between what Ronnie James had been doing with Rainbow and what he did with Black Sabbath but with more of an 80’s sound and more polished production and injected with a couple of more commercial hook-laden songs. The Last In Line is no different in that respect. Indeed, this is basically Holy Diver part II. However, those aspects of the Holy Diver album that worked best, works even better or at least as good here, but those aspects of it that didn’t work so well are even worse here! This makes for a much more uneven and inconsistent album compared to its predecessor with a couple of real gems among several much weaker moments.

The line-up remains the same as on the debut with the exception of the addition of keyboard player Claude Schnell who first joined Dio for the tour in support of Holy Diver. This means that ex-Rainbow bassist Jimmy Bain and ex-Black Sabbath drummer Vinny Appice are still on board.

The album starts with We Rock which is fast song that fills the role that Stand Up And Shout filled on Holy Diver. It lives up to its title well and became a standing show-closer for the band for many years (I think). Next up is the excellent title track that, in my opinion, is one of Dio’s best songs. This song is easily up to par with anything from Holy Diver and is a classic in its own right with captivating vocals and lyrics. Together with this album’s closing number Egypt (The Chains Are On), The Last In Line is also more ambitious than virtually anything that Dio has ever recorded.

Sadly, what follows are three rather generic and predictable songs in Breathless, I Speed At Night and One Night In The City. These songs are significantly less exciting and also too similar to each other to be of any particular interest for anyone other than Dio fanatics. Evil Eyes are slightly better, but the momentum is lost. Mystery is the obvious follow up to Rainbow In The Dark with a similar keyboard-heavy riff and a catchy hook. While this type of song is certain to put some Metal fans off, I actually think Dio does this kind of thing rather well! But it is very predictable after the success of Rainbow In The Dark and much less effective this time. At least the guitar solo is very good.

Eat You Heart Out too features excellent guitar work, but the feeling of ‘I have heard this before’ prevails. Not until the aforementioned closer does the album once again get interesting. Egypt (The Chains Are On) is even stronger than the title track and an absolute gem. This song is somewhat similar to the excellent Sign Of The Southern Cross from Black Sabbath’s Mob Rules album on which Ronnie sang and on one of their recent tours Dio actually mixed these two songs in a very effective medley (as can be heard on the very good live CD/DVD called Evil And Divine – named, by the way, after a line from The Last In Line). But this great song comes in too late to save this album from mediocrity.

To sum up. The Last In Line features two of Dio’s best and most ambitious songs, but the rest is predictable at best and downright boring at worst. Approach therefore with some caution!