Ronnie James Dio

[RadiclDreamer]

Dio was best on his own, him trying to replace ozzy just sucked imho, but his solo stuff was amazing!

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Heaven and Hell still has a permanent rotation on my playlist.

I'm a big fan of Rainbow too.

 

[88keys]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV1LzXf1TKQ

ozzy i never claimed was a good singer. he was however, charismatic, and his voice had a very unusual tone.

Ozzy really is not that good of a singer. He relies alot more on effects to achieve his sound. If you wan to know what his natural voice sounds like you have to go back to early Black Sabbath and listen to songs like War Pigs. That's pretty close to his raw tone.

Now that being said. It works with the rest of the music amazingly well so I'm not exactly complaining. But Ozzy isn't and was never that great of a singer.
dio is a very, very average singer, whose only luck was to be working in an era when metal was in its infancy; but praising dio is just a meme of the metal world of the 80s, and his talent is fiction and not fact.

(not completely relevant, but his lyrics were atrocious)

first off, dio's vocal range is in reality quite limited. he likes to keep it within a fifth of the tonic and basically talks very loud. the melodic line of his greatest works, such as last in line, is 3 notes. he's got a high pitched voice that sounds like he's signing, but he's really just squeeky.

or maybe not. but i wouldn't even begin to compare him to people i think are actually good singers from his era. not even obscure singers, but mainstream ones, such as ian gillian, bruce dickinson, david roth, robert plant, rob hartford, daltrey, mercury..

This is where you're dead wrong. Ronnie is one of the best singers who has ever lived. I sing in a band myself and it takes real skill to sing his songs properly. That man knew how to sing and the fact that his voice held up like it did until end is a testament to that. Even Bruce Dickinson recognized him as a great talent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzI2bVZ7Dto

 

[Anubis]

I liked Sabbath more when Dio was singing vs ozzie TBH

Heaven & Hell, Mob Rules and Born again are great albums

 

[WilliamM2]

I liked Sabbath more when Dio was singing vs ozzie TBH

Heaven & Hell, Mob Rules and Born again are great albums

Born Again had Ian Gillan as vocalist, not RJD. A better vocalist than Ozzy or Ronnie by a long shot, but a very poor fit for Sabbath. Listening to it now it doesn't hold up at all. unlike his work with Deep Purple.

 

[JM Aggie08]

Rainbow in the Dark = <3

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Dio was more of a visionary and an overall better performer and singer than Ozzy. Almost like the Michael Jackson of Heavy Metal.

More like the Lionel Richie of Heavy Metal

 

[Anubis]

Born Again had Ian Gillan as vocalist, not RJD. A better vocalist than Ozzy or Ronnie by a long shot, but a very poor fit for Sabbath. Listening to it now it doesn't hold up at all. unlike his work with Deep Purple.

doh your right

 

[Oyeve]

I dont know why yall are even bringing up Dio and Sabbath. He did like 2 albums and they pretty much sucked. Dio as DIO was great.

 

[spacejamz]

IMO Dio had a proper rock voice unlike Ozz, who has a sad voice that sounds like he's crying when he sings, if he properly can still that is. Also with Ozz if you look at the solo career it was first his guitarists (Randy, Jake, Zakk) that did the music then were the songwriters while Ozzy just sit there drugging himself near death, so on a technical scale I'd say Dio was a better man. However, if I have to pick one's music, I'd probably go with Ozz... I mean, Zakk's music as I've only listened to some Dio on the radio back in time. That's subjective though and I do know that Dio had some good classic metal songs.

Vivian Campbell is no slouch by any means...he could hold own shredding with best of them back in the day...not sure how he ended up with Def Leppard (other than making more $$)

Found this on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgC5_k0v15I

wow...didn't realize there was a major falling out between RJD and Vivian...dayum....

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Not sure if this was posted. Great cover of stand up & shout by adrenaline mob

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MGNe17BVuCA

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I liked Sabbath more when Dio was singing vs ozzie TBH

Heaven & Hell, Mob Rules and Born again are great albums

I'm more of an Ozzy Sabbath fan. However Dio's solo stuff is great.

 

[DigDog]

This David Roth?

yep.

see thats my point exactly. i take it from your posting that you consider his performance to be shit, i think he's nailed it. me, my 4 years of conservatory at santa cecilia, 3 at berkelee, and 4 working professionally in audio, we all agree that he's good and dio is not.


@88keys

you have a hard time singing his songs because they are too high. bring them down a couple tones and you'll see they are nothing spectacular.

as for ozzy, i will quote one of his roadies i met in boston 20 years ago:
"ozzy doesn't sing, he chants".

i know all the sabbath stuff, the good and the much of bad, and the reason why it works is because it's bad, ugly and scary, just like bolt thrower works because it has guttural growls, metallica works because heatfield is always angry, and so on, and so on.
rap wouldn't be rap is people started singing, and sabbath would not be "a theater of horror" if ozzy wasn't wailing on it.
heck, jim morrison wasn't a singer, yet his voice carried the doors to success.

mind you .. some of dio's stuff is nice. mob rules, last in line, holy diver .. just not great. not like highway star, or aces high, or mr crowley, but still nice to listen to.

 

[MetalMat]

Ozzy really is not that good of a singer. He relies alot more on effects to achieve his sound. If you wan to know what his natural voice sounds like you have to go back to early Black Sabbath and listen to songs like War Pigs. That's pretty close to his raw tone.
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Ozzy sounded pretty damn good early on in Black Sabbath. A while back I watched an old Black Sabbath live concert video. It was filmed in black and white and was super early in the band's career, might have been filmed in 1969 (The crowd was sitting down). I was stunned by how good Ozzy sounded. I was also very impressed with Bill Ward, he was slinging away on a very basic drum kit and was excellent. Damn I wish I could find that video....

 

[Hugh Jass]

You know there was a time that I used to think that he was just a second rate Ozzy Osbourne...

Stopped reading right there...SMFH.

 

[Hugh Jass]

it's not like i haven't read your answers, so i know the shitstorm this is going to cause. but RJD is shit.
(careful explanation following)

ozzy i never claimed was a good singer. he was however, charismatic, and his voice had a very unusual tone.

dio is a very, very average singer, whose only luck was to be working in an era when metal was in its infancy; but praising dio is just a meme of the metal world of the 80s, and his talent is fiction and not fact.

(not completely relevant, but his lyrics were atrocious)

first off, dio's vocal range is in reality quite limited. he likes to keep it within a fifth of the tonic and basically talks very loud. the melodic line of his greatest works, such as last in line, is 3 notes. he's got a high pitched voice that sounds like he's signing, but he's really just squeeky.

or maybe not. but i wouldn't even begin to compare him to people i think are actually good singers from his era. not even obscure singers, but mainstream ones, such as ian gillian, bruce dickinson, david roth, robert plant, rob hartford, daltrey, mercury..

when i think of dio, i think he's about the same level of talent as the guy from twisted sister.
just a lot squeekier.

 

[A.t]

Vivian Campbell is no slouch by any means...he could hold own shredding with best of them back in the day...not sure how he ended up with Def Leppard (other than making more $$)

Found this on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgC5_k0v15I

I didn't say it was the other way around. That is nice, and I dig a few Leppard songs as well. However if I have to go with the music basing off only on guitar I'd probably go with the old, pre-2000 Joe Cocker stuff with Phil Grande on guitar and that other Canadian guy that played in late 80's, they did well on both ballads and faster covers and not just in shredding.

 

[CPA]

My best memory of Dio was at a concert about 5 years ago when he was opening for Maiden. I was in the first row of the second section of the pavilion we were at. between our section and the main section was a walkway for people, so we were elevated somewhat. From my vantage point, I could clearly see folks in the front, larger section, but what caught my eye was a dad with his 8 and 13 (most likely ages) boys. When Dio came on, it wasn't the dad that started rocking out, it was the 13 year old. He fist pumped and sang every Dio song that was played, including a couple that I was not too familiar with. It was awesome to see this young kid headbanging with Dio. Never seen that at any other concert I've been to.

 

[A.t]

twisted sister.

Mark the animal is really critical... he really sees people, he watches people, he sees that there are people who are faking it, and hiding it... I WANNA ROCK!

Dio would hit it though... like a rainbow in the dark.

Seriously though, even if a musician has a single good song and all the rest of his stuff is garbage I'd still somehow appreciate and listen to it. That's just me though.

 

[Pacfanweb]

I would totally understand if you simply said that Ronnie just wasn't your thing... But to say he "is shit", is absolutely ridiculous. Do you realize that practically nobody else would say that? Again, take a look at the Loudwire link that 88keys posted above.

This David Roth?

What's wrong with that? A lot of songs, particularly rock songs, would be comical if you isolated just the vocals.

That is a spot-on version, right from the main recording.

That said, Roth was not a great singer, I don't know how he got mentioned. Especially live. It's not that he couldn't do it, he just didn't. He was mostly too busy being a showman, which is why he's one of the greatest probably 3 front men, ever. Front man...not necessarily singer.

Dio was more of a singer. You don't have to have some ridiculous range to be a great singer. You have to know how to sing. Look at Adele. She doesn't have much range, but she can SING. (not that I care for WHAT she sings all that much, though)

If you are impressed with lots of range AND singing ability, you need to listen to some early Journey with Steve Perry when he was younger. He is unmatched, to this day. Nobody can sing those old songs like he could, even the singers who kind of sound like him, like the guy they have now. Not even close.

Listen to Mother/Father, live in 1983:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IsAdOXDGAU

 

[88keys]

yep.


you have a hard time singing his songs because they are too high. bring them down a couple tones and you'll see they are nothing spectacular.

I'm a tenor like him and his voice is well within my range as it would be for any Tenor. I can plenty of other songs within the same range without difficulty. You're not going too find too many people with vocal experience who would call Dio a mediocre singer.

as for ozzy, i will quote one of his roadies i met in boston 20 years ago:
"ozzy doesn't sing, he chants".

i know all the sabbath stuff, the good and the much of bad, and the reason why it works is because it's bad, ugly and scary, just like bolt thrower works because it has guttural growls, metallica works because heatfield is always angry, and so on, and so on.
rap wouldn't be rap is people started singing, and sabbath would not be "a theater of horror" if ozzy wasn't wailing on it.
heck, jim morrison wasn't a singer, yet his voice carried the doors to success.

mind you .. some of dio's stuff is nice. mob rules, last in line, holy diver .. just not great. not like highway star, or aces high, or mr crowley, but still nice to listen to.

 

[13Gigatons]

Sabbath will always be Ozzy. They had there best years with him before he got fired. His solo career was also better which must of drove the black sabbath guys crazy. Ozzy has Sharon Osbourne to thank for resurrecting his career. Randy Rhoads was an awesome find....to bad he died so young. Dio is a footnote. A few good songs. A nice stint with rainbow before hand. Most people don't have a clue who he is.

BTW: It's OK to listen to all of them whatever the mood. No reason to chose one over the other.