Fans of Dio solo material. . .

[Nazgul6]

Analyze the guitarists he has had for THe Dio band.  I'm in a Dio tribute band and I'vebeen going back and listening to some of the lesser known stuff in the catalog.  First it struck me how much Goldy sounds like VIv on some of the solos on  Dream Evil.  I actually like Dream Evil.

 

Then I actually like some of the work of Rowan Robertson.  He had kind of an ols chool vibel for a young kid.  Good stuff. 

 

I wasn't a huge fan of the Tracy G. stuff when it first came out but going back and listening to it now I'm much more open to it.  The guy could definitely shred and I liked his sound it was just his note choice that turned me off but going back now and listening to some of the stuff on Angry Machines, its pretty good and its interesting musically.  A little more progressive, some odd meter stuff.

 

Thoughts?

[MacaroniSalad]

I would say my favourite solo Dio albums are Lock Up The Wolves and Strange Highways, I thought Rowan played great, the tone was a little soft, but the playing is great.

 

Strange Highways is a little weirder, a little more "Sludgey" perhaps, but I like it alot.

 

Viv never really did much for me

[b'lincoln]

Basically you covered it pretty well.  I really liked Holy Diver, not so much Viv's lead playing, but the songs were just incredible.  With the exception of We Rock (I'm a sucker for 16th note rhythms), I didn't care for the follow up.  I did like Sacred Heart, as I felt like it was more poppy/melodic, but I can see why his older fans didn't care for it.  I thought that Dream Evil was excellent, even if a little cheesy (sunset superman-great song).  I think that Craig did a great job of filling in, though I don't really hear much of his own style.  I think that Ronnie had a guitar sound that he liked and made everyone use it (very thin).  Viv also stated that Ronnie made him feel like he just wanted fast soloing. 

 

When Rowan came on board, I thought that it was a little to Sabbath sounding, lots of slower chugging pieces in the middle of the disc, which I didn't care for.  With the exceptions of My Eyes, Between Two Hearts and Hey Angel, I really didn't care for it.  Having said that, I picked up the tab book used for cheap and going back through it, I really appreciate his playing a lot more.  As you stated, he was really mature sounding (though he still had that **bleep** Dio tone).  Tracy I thought was a great breath of fresh air.  He was much heavier and had a thick tone that was more fitting of the early 90's.  There are some great songs on that record, though it was pretty over looked.  I started drifting away from Dio after that, so I'm not as familiar with his cateloge from that point on.  I tried to like Killing the Dragon, because I really like Doug, but I just didn't gel with it.