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Long overdue, this fairly comprehensive look into the solo career of Ronnie James Dio is more a primer for what metal and hard rock should be than simply a scrapbook of what it was.
The sixteen songs selected for inclusion here, for the most part, have become Heavy Metal standards. I would challenge the legitimacy of any Metal-Head who could not recite the lyrics to "Rainbow in the Dark" or describe the video for "The Last in Line" scene by scene though I would make allowances for them not being terribly familiar with either "Lock Up the Wolves" or "Strange Highways" all of which are here for the remembrance.
There is an emphasis on the early eighties version of DIO, a period when DIO truly looked like a band and before members began to change with each new record. In fact, the first 12 numbers are all performed by the same lineup of Dio, Jimmy Bain, Vinnie Appice and Vivian Campbell. The last four tracks feature no less than six subsequent musicians that each moved DIO in some way toward the greatness that is DIO's current release, "Magica."
All of the full length standard albums from which these songs come from are available domestically save the live "Intermission" disc which Rhino was good enough to shake a killer version of the RAINBOW classic, "Man on the Silver Mountain" from. If you haven't the cash to invest in the whole library this collection of snippets from Dio's solo years is more than adequate to inspire a savings account strictly for such a purpose.
In addition to the music this release features gushing liner notes from Martin Popoff and photos by Neil Zlozower making this the definitive DIO hits collection.

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