Blast from the Past: Dio – The Collection (2003)

Normally I like to stray away from “greatest hits” or “best of” albums, mainly because A – They’re often cheaply put together label bullshit to make a quick buck and B – I’m a complete Obsessive Compulsive nerd that needs to own full albums, and not crappy collections consisting of random songs. I’m basically an album whore, which is why itunes and buying odd songs will never appeal to me. Ever.

So what made me recently buy Dio – The Collection? Well I can never pass up a bargain, and when I walked into my local CD shop to find this on the shelves at a mere $4.50, I couldn’t pass it up. Besides, it’s fucking Dio!

Read on after the jump to see my review of this collection. Will it be crap? Or will it be a surprisingly awesome collection of Dio‘s greatest music? To be continued…. After the jump.

Well first thing’s first, this is Dio here, possibly the greatest Metal vocalist that ever graced the world. Of course the music is beyond brilliant, so for the purpose of this review I shall be taking an objective look at this collection that has been put together. Or maybe I’ll just resort to more fart and boob jokes to get the word count up, who knows? Not me, I’m making this up as I go along (professionalism FTW).

So on with the good… The Collection actually serves as a fantastic collection for two main reasons.  The album does a great job of covering Dio‘s solo band’s best songs, and for someone new to Dio, it’s without a doubt a great buy. However, for those who are well aware of Dio and his solo material, the collection is also crammed full (Slight exaggeration mind) of some brilliant rare live performances that you won’t hear anywhere else. So it’s a win win situation. A bit like sex with me.

So what tracks does this compilation contain? Well basically everything you would expect; of course there’s Holy Diver, Don’t Talk to Strangers, Rainbow In The Dark, and Dream Evil etc. The production and quality is all brilliant, including all the live tracks too, so no complaints there.

My only real complaint for the collection is, it definitely is lacking some of Ronnie James Dio‘s awesome Rainbow and Black Sabbath work, but I guess I can’t exactly fault it for that, as it is a purely Dio collection. So if you are completely new to Dio though (first, where the hell have you been?), you may want to check out Heaven and Hell/Black Sabbath and his work with Rainbow as well. As a Dio solo release, however, The Collection does a great job of summing up Dio‘s solo music.

So, overall, I’m fucking awesome, but The Collection comes pretty damn close to my awesomeness. Well, for $4.50 it does. of course, if you are totally new to Dio, then what the hell are you doing on Dose of Metal? But then you may want to check out his other work out there. For a casual or relatively new Dio solo listener, however, The Collection is well worth a purchase.

Overall: 9/10

Tracklisting: