Ronnie James DIO would have turned 80 years old on July 10. Among the greatest heavy metal singers of all time, Dio’s career spanned five decades, touched millions of fans and pioneered his signature “devil’s horns,” one of the most popular hand gestures in the world. Dio also provided vocals and lyrics for some of the most iconic rock albums of all time with Black Sabbath and Rainbow, before establishing his own band Dio as a metal force with their 1983 debut ”Holy Diver”.
Rhino Records revisits this epic metal moment on “HOLY DIVER: SUPER DELUXE EDITION“, a four-CD box set including a new remaster, an unreleased concert, a CD of rarities / unreleased, and a disc including a new remix of the LP.
This is all awesome, the new remix, the new remaster, the unreleased live, and the collectible bonus CD of rare DIO stuff. Long Live the King!
”Holy Diver (Joe Barresi Remix)” has been remixed by engineer Joe Barresi (Tool, Queens of the Stone Age, Slipknot) taking as source the original master tapes. Cover art is also new done by longtime Dio artist, Marc Sasso.
The results? In our opinion are excellent.
With this 2022 remix ‘Holy Diver’ has been benefited by a rich, defined sound of the whole instrumentation in the mid-range of the sonic spectrum, and Ronnie’s vocals are clearer – something like ‘floating’ into your ears.
Wendy Dio said about the reasoning behind this Holy Diver new remix:
“We were just — Rhino and myself — were thinking that it would be nice to re-release it with a newly remixed version. And I went through lots of different producers and thinking who would make a good job of it for Ronnie and bring it a bit more modern.
So we picked Joe Barresi, who’s done lots of stuff with Tool, Queens of the Stone Age and so on. And he was quite reluctant in the beginning to do it because he said, ‘Oh, I can’t improve on what Ronnie did.’ And I said, ‘Well, it’s not really to improve on it. It’s just to make it a little bit different and to bring it up to today’s standards.’
And so he did it, and I’m very pleased. I think he did an absolutely amazing job with it.”
”Holy Diver (Joe Barresi Remix)” sounds great. And there’s something we like a lot: there are no end fades in 6 tracks, all end as they were originally recorded, the band properly finishing the songs.
Barresi unearths outros that were initially lost to the album’s deeply ’80s fade-outs, providing a small behind-the-scenes glimpse of the sessions, and this is a must listen for fans of this incredible album.
On CD 2 the new 2022 remaster sounds much better than the previous available, offering a beefier listen without sacrificing the character of the original recording. It’s fuller in the deep end of the sonic spectrum.
HOLY DIVER: SUPER DELUXE EDITION goes beyond the original album with a previously unreleased recording of the quartet performing live in 1983 at Selland Arena in Fresno, California during the Holy Diver Tour.
On CD3, Wyn Davis mixed the concert recording, which spotlights live versions of songs from Holy Diver (“Stand Up And Shout” and “Rainbow In The Dark”), Rainbow classics (“Man On The Silver Mountain” and “Starstruck”), and Sabbath staples, (“Children Of The Sea” and “Heaven And Hell.”)
The Box Set, on CD4 also revisits the ‘Holy Diver’ recording sessions to uncover unreleased outtakes for several album cuts, including unheard takes for “Invisible,” “Straight Through The Heart,” and a version of “Rainbow In The Dark” that boasts an alternative guitar solo.
There’s also an early version of “Evil Eyes,” a song that would resurface on Dio’s 1984 follow-up album, The Last in Line.
A selection of rarities rounds out the new collection with a radio-mono and stereo 7” single edits for “Rainbow In The Dark” and a version of “Evil Eyes” that was released in 1983 as the B-side to “Holy Diver.”
Dio’s “HOLY DIVER: SUPER DELUXE EDITION” is a ‘holy grail’ for ’80s metal / hard rock aficionados…
A MUST
CD1: Holy Diver (2022 Joe Barresi Mix) *
1. “Stand Up And Shout”
2. “Holy Diver”
3. “Gypsy”
4. “Caught In The Middle”
5. “Don’t Talk To Strangers”
6. “Straight Through The Heart”
7. “Invisible”
8. “Rainbow In The Dark”
9. “Shame On The Night”
CD2: Holy Diver (2022 Remaster) *
1. “Stand Up And Shout”
2. “Holy Diver”
3. “Gypsy”
4. “Caught In The Middle”
5. “Don’t Talk To Strangers”
6. “Straight Through The Heart”
7. “Invisible”
8. “Rainbow In The Dark”
9. “Shame On The Night”
CD3: Live at Selland Arena, Fresno, CA, 1983
1. Intro *
2. “Stand Up And Shout” *
3. “Straight Through The Heart” *
4. “Shame On The Night” *
5. “Children Of The Sea” *
6. “Holy Diver” *
7. “Heaven And Hell” – including guitar solo *
8. “Rainbow In The Dark” *
9. “Man On The Silver Mountain” *
10. “Starstuck” *
11. “Man On The Silver Mountain” – reprise *
12. “Don’t Talk To Strangers” *
CD4: Outtakes, Singles & B-Sides
Tracks 1-7 unreleased
1. “Evil Eyes” – Wyn Davis remix *
2. “Don’t Talk To Strangers” – Take 1 (Joe Barresi mix) *
3. “Invisible” – Take 1 (Joe Barresi mix) *
4. “Invisible” – Take 3 (Joe Barresi mix) *
5. “Rainbow In The Dark” – Alternative Guitar Solo Version (Joe Barresi mix) *
6. “Straight Through The Heart” – Take 2 (Joe Barresi mix) *
7. “Straight Through The Heart” – Take 3 (Joe Barresi mix)*
8. “Rainbow In The Dark” – 7” Mono Edit
9. “Evil Eyes” – 1983 Version. B-Side of “Holy Diver”
10. “Rainbow In The Dark” – 7” Stereo Edit