Strange Highways (Dio, 1994)

If you've had to opportunity to experience the vast sweep of Ronnie James Dio's career, then you'll know that Strange Highways and the "Tracy G" era of Dio (the band) moved him to the heaviest point of his career. The material here is light years removed from his origins in Elf and the bands that led up to Elf, and it's even pretty far removed from his earliest international exposure in Rainbow. Even though Ritchie Blackmore and Rainbow were Dio's ticket to stardom (as much as you may like Elf, it didn't catapult him to prominence), it was really Black Sabbath that would define his career from 1979 onward. When Dio (the band) was born, their debut, Holy Diver, was clearly shaped by his boot camp experience of two albums with Sabbath. After five albums, that hard exterior was getting a little rusty, so reuniting with the Sabs was a real shot in the arm for Dio's career, or at least put a lot more muscle into his sound.

Dio's fan base is a little hard to read. Early albums like Holy Diver and The Last in Line remain among the favorites, while Sacred Heart, Dream Evil, and even Lock Up the Wolves (which sported an entirely different lineup) were criticized for just repeating prior successes. Strange Highways, fortified through the re-energization through Dehumanizer, completely breaks with the wearying trend of all previous Dio albums. Yet the fans still remained unpleased. Even though drummer Vinnie Appice was back in the fold (another legacy of the Sabbath reunion) a lot of scorn was heaped on new guitar Tracy G, who just couldn't seem to fit fan expectations of what Dio's guitarist should be. Even though he sold his soul to Whitesnake and Def Leppard and was locked in a lifelong feud with Ronnie Janes Dio, Vivian Campbell set the tone and Craig Goldy and Rowan Robertson (more reluctantly) largely followed suit. From the first notes of opener "Jesus, Mary & the Holy Ghost" it was clear Tracy G wasn't content to follow suit. Most of the songs are way more aggressive than anything Dio had done before, largely propelled by Tracy G, but also Dio and Appice were coming fresh off a very heavy gig with Black Sabbath. The following album, Angry Machines, from what I remember of it, compounded the problems of Tracy G haters with the usually album fatigue the band exhibited back in the 1980's. When I saw them live in 1997, they only performed a single song from that album (and I think maybe two from this one?) , and it was pretty clear that Tracy G wasn't going to last much longer. Since Dio, he's mostly performed in his own name, with a few side project bands I've never heard of. As for Dio, they took some time to rebuild, and the new album, Magica, was a strange family reunion of musicians from the beginnings (Jimmy Bain on bass), Dream Evil (Craig Goldy's return), and Lock Up the Wolves (journeyman drummer Simon Wright).