DIO cds

Dio is a heavy metal legend, this man has been around for years, playing in Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, then in his own band Dio. When I was a teenager and into my later years I had everything he sang own. The man has an awesome voice. But as I grew older I started leaving the metal behind and staying more in the realm of Rock, more toward the softer to uptempo side. A lot of Christians (which I am now proudly one) have long put his music down as almost satanic, and I can see why they thing that. But if they never grew up listening to him and playing Dungeon and Dragons I can see the misunderstanding. Dio does dive into that realm and he does sing of dragons and beasts, but it is with man overcoming them, just what we fantasized about playing D&D. Dio always keep his music clean and no cussing and nothing offensive, what a lot of metal people do not do. So I understand both sides.

Although I no longer own any Dio cds other than a stray concert here and there, I know all the songs, but to refresh my self I borrowed a friends Dio collection to give them another listen...

Holy Diver (A) Great metal cd, Ronnie has the voice and Vivian Campbell has the Axe. Stand out songs on this headbanger is Stand Up And Shout, Holy Diver, Don't Talk to Strangers, and Straight Thru the Heart

The Last In Line (B-) Too much more of the same, and not enough of the new. Still a good cd. The title track is Dio at his best. Nothing bad but nothing else outstanding.

Sacred Heart (B) Better than the last cd, but not as good as his first. Title track plus Rock And Roll Children, Hungry For Heaven, Another Lie, and Just Another Day are the stand outs. King Of Rock And Roll show how bad the cd can be, along with Fallen Angels.

Dream Evil (C-) This cd was boring when it came out, and still is. Only a couple of songs make this cd worth listening too. All The Fools Have Sailed Away is classic Dio, and Naked In The Rain burns like acid rain. But for the rest....

Lock Up The Wolves (B-) One of Dio's lowest sailing cd , but one the better ones I liked. The cd is more rock and less metal. Wild One, Between Two Hearts, Night Music, Lock Up The Wolves, Twisted, Why Are They Watching Me and the slow My Eyes, are all good songs. Rest of the cd is big miss.

Strange Highways (C+) Dio tries to return to the heavy metal sound of the mid 80's, and comes close on the songs, Strange Highways, Hollywood Black, and Give Her The Gun. Bring Down the Rain is ok, but rest of the cd is pretty weak.

Angry Machines (D+) Poor sounding cd, most of the songs seem thrown together, just to put something out. Dying In America, This IS Your Life, and Don't Tell The Kids, all make for a good listen compared to the songs on rest of the cd. But when compared to the other good songs on other Dio cds, they don't hold up as well.

Magica (B) This epic rock opera is just that, epic. Maybe a little too epic. Dio returns with story dealing once again with his favorite story lines D&D. At times it is a bit much, but it is typical Dio, over the top and loud. Standouts are Lord Of The Last Day, Fever Dreams, and Feed My Head. Nothing bad on here either.

Killing The Dragon (B+) Dio keeps coming back, and it takes a lot to keep this man down. The title track tells it all, Dio is in his territory now, and at his best. The title track along with Rock And Roll, Scream, Guilty, and Throw Away Children are in the classic Dio vein. rest of the cd is pretty good too.

Master Of The Moon (C-) One For The Road starts the cd off very strong, but nothing else comes close to matching it. What a shame to start off so strong and fall so quick.

Stand Up And Shout; The Dio Anthology (A) is the best of the Dio collections out there. Runs from his Elf years to the Strange Highway cd.

On the Sabbath side

Heaven And Hell (A) was always one of my favorite metal cds. I not much into metal, really now a days I steer clear of it, but this cd is awesome. The title track is one of Dio's best. Neon Knights is a solid rocker, and Children Of The Sea starts off majestic before opening up to full throttle. Wishing Well has a mean riff thru it, and Lonely Is The Word is a haunting song. The other songs are well above the metal make too. And the title track is Sabbath's best ever.

The Mod Rules (B-) Is a poor follow up to the Heaven And Hell cd. Falling Off The Edge Of The World is great fast paced rocker, and really the only song that doesn't seemed forced to live up to the previous cd. The title track is another good song, but the rest are just average metal.

Dehumanizer (D) Time Machine, and TV Crimes are great songs, the rest is to downbeat for me.

DENNIS DEYOUNG-Music of Styx: Live With Symphony Orchestra

Dennis' 2 cd set is 23 live songs and 3 new studio songs. This cd adds a symphony orchestra to his music, to great results. Released in 03, four years before Styx would release their live symphony cd. Were Styx used the orchestra to rock up the songs, Dennis uses them to add the arrangements. Dennis' songs were always written to have an orchestra added to them. Just listen to the original version of The Best Of Times, and tell me you can't hear this song without an orchestra in it. And Dennis has other songs that have the same feel to them.

The cd starts off the Bombastic Grand Illusion, and you can tell that this cd is going to be great! This song was great before, now it is even better. And it keeps going, Lady the next song up, has an extended instrumental in it. And some of the songs lead off or have in it, classical songs blended into them, and this seems like a natural extension of the song.

The vocaled Show Me The Way is awesome. Black Wall, which is not one of the DeYoung songs that I like, sounds great with an orchestra. I have always liked the message, but for some reason the music on it seemed flat. But here is full and sharp.

Castle Walls was haunting on the Grand Illusion cd, and here it even seems like it is something out of the middle ages. Makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Suite Madame Blue and Desert Moon are just awesome. With Every Heartbeat which was another song that could have been better on the original cd, is stunning here.

The only song that does not hold up with an symphony is Rockin The Paradise. It just doesn't rock. The horns kill it.

A very good live cd, well worth the money!

As for the new songs, it is a mixed bag.

Goodnight My Love is the weak song of the bunch. It is not a bad song, but it is not good. Typical of Dennis here lately. I think Dennis has forgotten how to rock. He can write a ballad with eyes closed and his ears plugged up, and it would still be a good song. Goodnight is a good song, but for Dennis, good is not good enough.

My God Can Beat Up Your God, is a rock song, but here again it just doesn't have the punch it needs. Again it is still a good song, but Dennis seems to be saying I need a rock song so here you go. Both songs have good lyrics, but just misses the mark on the music level.

Hello God is awesome, lyrically and musically. This is the Dennis I know. He pushed hisself on this song and the result was great.

All I can say is BUY THIS CD!!!!

Grade A-

CHICAGO cds

Never been a big Chicago fan of the early year. I have tried several times to get into those early albums. But unless it was a radio hit or was played a lot on album stations, I never paid them much mind. Even after getting into Chicago in the early/mid eighties, I tried again to listen to the early stuff, but still can not get into it. A lot of fans tend to shy away from the later stuff that I like.


IX Greatest Hits (A) This 1975 release as all the songs I like from the early years. So no need for me to go get the for the early stuff to enjoy theses songs.

Greatest Hits, Vol 2 (B+) Some more good songs from the years that I don't really care for. But all the good songs from 75 to 81 are here.

16 (B+) First Chicago cd I ever bought, and what made dig into the back catalog. Nothing in early years was as good as this. Big hit Hard To Say I'm Sorry, and Love Me Tomorrow, plus some other songs that didnt make the radio like Rescue You and Chains. Never knew horns could rock so, and just about the whole cd does.

17 (A) Power ballads, rock songs, and songs with a danceable beat are what make up this cd, and make for Chicago's finest cd since the start of the band till today in 2008. Plenty of big hits, an no filler. Stay The Night, Hard Habit To Break, Along Comes A Woman, Your The Inspiration are just some of the awesome songs on this cd.

18 (B) Peter Cetera is gone on to solo fields, and is replace by Jason Scheff. Jason comes in having to fill some big shoes, and does a pretty good job of it. And he only gets better with each cd. Just listen to Will You Still Love Me, this is a good a lot of Cetera era. As are some of the other songs, If She Would Have Been Faithful, It's Alright, Nothings Gonna Stop Us Now, and I Believe. But rest of the cd is filler, and a odd remake of 25 Or 6 To 4.

19 (A-) More big hits, and a little filler make for their second best cd. The haunting I Don't Want To Live Without Your Love is one of my top 3 Chicago songs along with Look Away, both of which are on this cd. Victorious and Runaround are the only weak songs on the cd. A great cd.

20 Greatest Hits (A+) Great songs from 16 to 19. But could have placed a couple more songs on the cd.

21 (C+) 12 song cd, only half are good, and they are good!! God Save The Queen, You Come To My Senses, Explain It To My Heart, What Does It Take, Chasin The Wind, and Who Do Love are some very strong songs by the group. Holdin On is ok, but rest of the cd is stale at best.

Night And Day; Big Band (A-) A great cd. My dad had a lot of big band cds back from his day, and before I got into rock I use to put them on and listen to them. But I could have swore that most of theses songs didn't have lyrics to them, so I had to go back and find out. It was good to listen to the old records, but I have to say I really like what Chicago did to the songs. They Chicagoized them, and to very good results. The lyrics fit the songs to a tee.

25 The Christmas Album (B) What Night And Day did to improve for the big band era, Chicago tries to do the same for the classic Christmas era songs. For the most part it works, and Chicago adds their own unique style to the Christmas songs. A stray song here and there misses the mark (not by far). But a good cd to add to you Christmas rotation.

26 The Live Album (C-) Chicago has never had a great live cd (nor great live boot). This effort fails just like all the others. Sadly it sticks to a lot of the older songs, and skips the 80's and 90's. The new songs never get off the ground and that is sad with the remake of You Love Keeps Lift Me Higher And Higher.

30 (B+) A great comeback cd by the band. Some really strong songs on this cd. Feel (the single mix) is one of the best rock songs the band has done in a while. Jason is fantastic on King Of Might Have Been. Fantastic harmonies on Caroline and Long Lost Friend. No bad songs, but a couple songs are filler, and could have done without the horned version of Feel.

Group Portrait (B) 4 cds Cover from the beginning to 1981..a little too much early Chicago for me, but a good collection

The Heart Of Chicago 1967-1997 (A-) New songs Here In My Heart and The Only One are worthy additions to the Chicago catalog of songs. Rest of the cds is pretty good too. Some good songs are missing, but are in Vol. 2.

The Heart Of Chicago 1967-1998 Vol. 2 (A-) All Roads Lead To You is a awesome new song, but the other new one Show Me A Sign shows signs of live only during the chorus. Most of the songs that were missing on Vol 1 are here. A shame nothing from 21 or Night And day are on here, both cds had really good songs on them.

PETER CETERA solo cds


Solitude.Solitaire (B-) Some good songs on this cd, but the production and beat of the cd really hurt it. Glory Of Love, Next Time I Fall In Love, and Only Love Knows Why are the standouts on this disk.


One More Story (B+) Production is better as is rest of the cd. Best Of Times, One Good Woman, Heaven Help The Lonely Man, Save Me, and Peace of Mind all from the first half of the cd are standout songs. The second half of the cd is pretty good too.


World Falling Down (B) Peter slows things down a little on his cd and aims more for the AC market, which suits him fine. Some good songs, Have You Ever Been In Love my favorite Cetera solo song, but nothing else really stands out this time around.


One Clear Voice (B-) The title track is awesome as is Faithfully. Happy Man remake from his Chicago days is ok. Rest of the songs are not bad, but not great either.


Another Perfect World (C) I hated this cd when it first came out, HATED IT!!! But know after giving a few more times over the past 6 or 7 years, it has grown on me, kind of like a wart. Can't say I would included anything on a hits cd, but not a complete waste of plastic either.


You Gotta Love Christmas (B-) Why do Peter and Chicago seem so inter twinned? Not has good as Chicago's Christmas cd, but still worth playing on the holidays.


Glory Of Love; Live (B) Better than Chicago's live cds, but not as good as I was hoping.


Your The Inspiration; A Collection (B-) 3 recordings of Chicago songs, and a collection of his hits that don't cover everything. Could have been so much better!


Greatest Hits (B) This 2002 release isn't much better than the above, at least this one has the Glory Of Love on it.

Jason Scheff

Chancey (A-) Great first solo cd from Jason. Included some of the then unreleased Chicago cd The Stone Of Syphilis. Some songs have a good jazz feel to them, never really cared for that type of music, but Jason does it right. Well worth looking for this hard to find cd.