Description

American 2018 press on clear vinyl with printed innersleeve

Sacred Heart can be seen as the final chapter of Dio’s classic trilogy. After two colossal monsters like ‘Holy Diver’ and ‘The Last In Line’, Ronnie James Dio had a big homework about build a new high quality full-length. The result of that was 1985’s ‘Sacred Heart’ it couldn’t top the first two albums but still count as an authentic heavy metal classic. This album marks the end of the classic line-up with Vivian Campbell’s tenure as Dio’s guitarist, and the sound of the band has obviously not been the same since. His contributions to this album are quite exceptional, though looking back at the other two albums it almost seems that his efforts had tapered off a bit since the beginning. Analyzing the differences between the other guitarists is quite intriguing, as Ronnie has obviously eyed up differing talents over the years, but part of me does long for Vivian to give up his lackluster job as Def Leppard’s rhythm guitarist and do something spectacular again. In conclusion, this is the end of an era for Dio, and also the end of the stability that had magically been established for the first three years of this band. I recommend this album to Dio fans and Metal fans alike, it’s not quite as good as the previous two, but it’s still excellent.

Track list:
1. King Of Rock And Roll
2. Sacred Heart
3. Another Lie
4. Rock ‘n’ Roll Children
5. Hungry For Heaven
6. Like The Beat Of A Heart
7. Just Another Day
8. Fallen Angels
9. Shoot Shoot