Lock Up the Wolves (Dio, 1990)

In the wake of the cataclysmic split of Black Sabbath in 1982, it seems like Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice got the best end of the deal. While the Butler/Iommi faction kept the Black Sabbath name, the band spiraled to near-oblivion by 1990, consisting of Tony Iommi and whoever he could recruit (Geezer Butler cut his ties around 1984). Meanwhile, Dio created a band with his own name on it, released his first "solo" album since 1963 and somehow managed to maintain a solid lineup devised from his Rainbow and Black Sabbath roots through most of the decade. Except for one personnel hiccup (Vivian Campbell exiting, Craig Goldy entering), the same lineup bashed out four albums in five years. In spite of a little fresh blood on 1987's Dream Evil, it was becoming clear that the band needed to evolve or be condemned to releasing increasingly weaker reflections of Holy Diver. When Goldy turned out to be a more temporary than permanent fix, the rest of the band (Appice, bassist Jimmy Bain, and keyboard player Claude Schnell) soon exited by decade's end, and Dio (the man) was tasked with rebranding Dio (the band) for a new decade.

The Lock Up the Wolves lineup was far more session-men than permanent band members, either by design or by accident. Certainly bassist Teddy Cook, Jens Johannsen (keyboards) and drummer Simon Wright (ex-AC/DC of all bands) were better known as hired guns. Meanwhile new axe-man Rowan Robertson was an out-of-left-field selection, only about 18 years old, literally of another generation. The resulting album still rests very much in the shadow of 1980's Dio, though some conventions were finally tossed, such as the nine-song array with the title track in the second position. I think the 11 song approach may be more due to the CD overtaking the vinyl record and allowing longer album running times. In spite of an entirely new band, the overall sound is not a huge deviation from Dream Evil, though, like that album the energy is pretty good, showing a healthy amount of influence from the surrounding music scene, by now dominated by speed metal and glam rock, with grunge still a couple years away.

Whether this was meant to be a "Dio for the 90's" band may never been known. Between the "session" orientation of the lineup, plus Dio and Robertson never really clicking, it may have been for the best that a chance encounter with Geezer Butler resulted in Dio's return to Black Sabbath, putting Dio on indefinite hiatus. Although the resulting Dehumanizer (which owes more than a little to what Dio was doing here) was a big career resuscitator for all parties, personalities once again split the band the same way as before. The next Dio albums, Strange Highways and Angry Machines, would finally reveal a really different-sounding Dio, though financially dark times would haunt Dio for most of the 1990's.

On a personal note, this was one of the last Dio albums I bought, around the time of his illness and death. I was kind of embarrassed to call myself and fan and have skipped over it. Thankfully CD's were getting pretty darn cheap around this time. There's still a few later albums I've never bothered to track down, but maybe the completionist in me needs to assert himself once and for all!