Dio - A Decade Of Dio: 1983-1993 [Box Set] (2016)

Genre - Hard Rock / Heavy Metal

Label - Warner Bros.

Track listing:

Disc 1/6 (Holy Diver)

01. Stand Up and Shout 3:18
02. Holy Diver 5:54
03. Gypsy 3:40
04. Caught In The Middle 4:17
05. Don't Talk To Strangers 4:54
06. Straight Through The Heart 4:35
07. Invisible 5:26
08. Rainbow In The Dark 4:14
09. Shame On The Night 5:19

Disc 2/6 (Last In Line)

01. We Rock 4:34
02. The Last In Line 5:46
03. Breathless 4:08
04. I Speed At Night 3:22
05. One Night In The City 5:15
06. Evil Eyes 3:38
07. Mystery 3:55
08. Ear Your Heart Out 3:53
09. Egypt (The Chains Are On) 6:58

Disc 3/6 (Sacred Heart)

01. King Of Rock And Roll 3:45
02. Sacred Heart 6:24
03. Another Lie 3:50
04. Rock 'N' Roll Children 4:33
05. Hungry For Heaven 4:09
06. Like The Beat of A Heart 4:17
07. Just Another Day 3:23
08. Fallen Angels 3:52
09. Shoot Shoot 4:17

Disc 4/6 (Dream Evil)

01. Night People 4:06
02. Dream Evil 4:22
03. Sunset Superman 5:46
04. All The Fools Sailed Away 7:11
05. Naked In The Rain 5:10
06. Overlove 3:47
07. I Could Have Been A Dreamer 4:41
08. Faces In The Window 3:51
09. When A Woman Cries 4:34

Disc 5/6 (Lock Up The Wolves)

01. Wild One 4:05
02. Born On The Sun 5:36
03. Hey Angel 4:58
04. Between Two Hearts 6:30
05. Night Music 5:08
06. Lock Up The Wolves 8:32
07. Evil On Queen Street 6:03
08. Walk On Water 3:44
09. Twisted 4:45
10. Why Are They Watching Me 5:02
11. My Eyes 6:38

Disc 6/6 (Strange Highways)

01. Jesus, Mary & The Holy Ghost 4:11
02. Firehead 4:06
03. Strange Highways 6:51
04. Hollywood Black 5:08
05. Evilution 5:35
06. Pain 4:11
07. One Foot In The Grave 4:01
08. Give Her The Gun 5:59
09. Blood From A Stone 4:14
10. Here's To You 3:25
11. Bring Down The Rain 5:40

Warner Bros have released a fantastic 6CD Boxset featuring the re-mastered first 6 albums from heavy metal and hard rock legends. Now there has been already recent re-masters on these essential albums, deluxe editions with extra material, SHM-CD, etc, but believe me, this "A Decade of DIO 1983-1993 Boxset" is the definitive collection when it comes to sound quality. The re-mastering is superb, adding a little more punch but preserving the 'original feel' as it should be on every re-mastering job. Ronnie's voice sounds crystal clear, and if any tinkering has been done to the original mix, then maybe the vocals have been raised ever so slightly, but what the hey these albums sound fantastic, especially the first three, Holy Diver through Sacred Heart.

this set is well worth getting a hold of, if just to simply up-grade the sound quality of the original releases. The only negative is that there are no bonus tracks, I mean it would have been nice for Time To Burn or Hide In The Rainbow to have been added to the collection, and maybe some unreleased out-takes, but what the hey.

Check it out!

Rating - 9/10

Hardstuff - Bulletproof

Genre - Hard Rock / Classic Rock / Reissue Label - AngelAir Records

Track listing -

01. Jay Time
02. Sinister Minister

03. No Witch At All
04. Taken Alive
05. Time Gambler
06. Millionaire
07. Monster In Paradise
08. Hobo
09. Mr Longevity-RIP
10. The Provider-Part One
BONUS TRACKS
11. Jay Time (single version)
12. The Orchestrator

"HARD STUFF was a hard rock band formed by JOHN DU CANN and Paul Hammond from ATOMIC ROOSTER with JOHN GUSTAFSON from QUATERMASS. Signed to Purple records in 1971 initially as BULLET (they had to change their name in early 1972 to HARD STUFF as there was then already in existence an American group called Bullet) Hence the name of their very first album "Bulletproof" released in June 1972

The band toured heavily across Europe (particularly Germany), often as support to DEEP PURPLE and URIAH HEEP. Their career though was curtailed by a bad car accident returning from a gig at The Zoom Club, Frankfurt in which Du Cann and Hammond were badly injured and they spent weeks in hospital in Belgium torpedoing their plans to record the much anticipated second album.
'Bulletproof' is a classic album now much sought after-remastered with bonus tracks on Angel Air."

Another reissue of an otherwise lost classic album courtesy of Angel Air. Hard Stuff had a sound reminiscent of the like of Deep Purple, Elf, Led Zepplin and the like, with solid riffs and well-crafted songs with at times a little pop sensibility. A great mix and this reissue shows just why they were causing the stir that they were back in 1972. The songs have aged considerably well and display just what the band had to offer, before their career was prematurely cut short.


A great reminder for those that were lucky enough to be there in the seventies to witness this band first hand, a great introduction a great band for those who were not, like me. Once again this re-issue comes with extensive sleeve notes written by Jeff Perkins detailing the story of this album and Hard Stuff!


Well worth checking out!

Rating - 9/10











MUSICIANS
JOHN DU CANN,
JOHN GUSTAFSON,
PAUL HAMMOND