Dio
Holy Diver


Tracks:

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

Line up:

Ronnie James Dio – vocals, keyboards
Vivian Campbell – guitar
Jimmy Bain – bass, keyboards
Vinny Appice – drums

Record Label:

Vertigo

Year of Release:

1983

Notes:

Holy Diver is the debut album from American heavy metal band Dio. Released on May 25, 1983, the album has been hailed by critics as Dio's best work and a classic staple in the heavy metal genre. The original vinyl release had a photo-montage LP-liner, with images from both Rainbow and Black Sabbath days.

The album was remastered and re-released by Rock Candy Records in 2005. The only notable addition to the original album is an audio interview with Ronnie James Dio. Tracks 10-19 on the 2005 edition are Dio's answers to various questions about the album. The questions are not posed during the interview itself, but can be found inside the CD's booklet instead. The B-sides to the singles, most of them live, remain generally unavailable on CD. Some were included in a limited-edition Japanese CD box set.

The cover was controversial, featuring a devil killing a cleric. Dio was quick to argue that appearances are misleading, that it could just as easily be a priest killing a devil, wanting people not to "judge a book by its cover."

The demon-like monster is the band's mascot known as "Murray" and is featured on several other Dio albums as well.[5] When the "DIO" logo is viewed upside-down it can be interpreted as spelling either the word "DIE" or "DEVIL". However, Ronnie James Dio has disclaimed this and called it purely coincidental.