Released: 2002
After spending a few years experimenting with different things and mucking around with his basic style in the mid-90s, Dio's Magica album was much vaunted as a comeback of sorts, but turned out to be a turgid exercise in self-indulgence that was disappointing to say the least and it could have been argued that after 40 years in the recording business it was time for him to give it away. Then this album appeared, and the title track was barely halfway through before I realised that the little guy still had it in him.
Killing the Dragon hearkens back to Dio’s glory days of the early-mid 1980s, making little or no deviation from the songwriting formula he’s been using since at least his Rainbow days and perhaps earlier. The album maintains his obsession with metaphors taking the shapes of dragons and fantasy themes (although there’s no mention of rainbows at all) and wraps them all up in tightly-played commercial heavy metal that, while generally mid-paced thanks to Dio’s age-old predeliction for grand plodding, rocks out on occasion when tracks like “Rock and Roll” call for it. The introduction of Doug Alridch on guitar also added a some spark.
Dio hardly reinvented himself here as he had tried to do with the likes of Angry Machines; instead it was more of a renaissance, showing that he’s a true master of metal and even as he headed for his mid-60s, he could still churn out a good album.
- Killing the Dragon
- Along Comes a Spider
- Scream
- Better in the Dark
- Rock & Roll
- Push
- Guilty
- Throw Away Children
- Before the Fall
- Cold Feet
Rating: 71%
I thought this album was pretty plodding last time I listened to it. I'll have to give it another go.
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