RJ45's Metal #5: Holy Diver by Dio

This week I will be reviewing Holy Diver by Dio

It was the mid-1980s, Ronnie James Dio had left Black Sabbath for "undisclosed reasons." So, Mr. Dio formed his own band. Later on, came Holy Diver, and the title track was the second single released off of that classic album.

While the lyrics are random, this song has remained a classic amongst the metal community. Guitar God Vivian Campbell (now part of Def Leppard) does a great job here. There is a very old school Paranoid-era Black Sabbath feel throughout this song. I really can't say much else because this is Dio's signature song!

The video is, well, its a 1980s heavy metal video. You have to have swords. You to have fire at some point. The vocalist has to be super imposed over something psychedelic. That's about it! Nothing spectacular, but I've seen worse... much worse.

Overall, when it comes to Classic Metal, it does not get any better than "Holy Diver." The video is a bit on the cliche side (considering I think I have seen about 1000 other 1980s metal videos with the exact same direction and plot). But, this isn't really about the video. This is about the epic and classic "Holy Diver."

Next week, I will be taking at the Killswitch Engage version!

Video Rating: **1/2
Song Rating: *****