I recently heard someone wearing an Avenged Sevenfold shirt describe “Dio, Maiden, and Metallica” as ‘lame metal’.

Holy Diver, the solo debut of ex-Sabbath, ex-Rainbow frontman Ronnie James Dio, lives on the peak of the metal mountain. If every metal riff and melody wasn’t written by the early Black Sabbath, Dio came along to ensure the genre was built.

With a helping hand from Van Halen, Motorhead, Iron Maiden, and a select few others, the genre of the devil was formed. Keep in mind that this was 30+ years ago, before Avenged Sevenfold and My Chemical Romance had a chance to convince the general public that metalheads were temperamental cocksmokers.

Now. Holy Diver wrote the rules. Dio may never have reached the top of the mountain again in its/his lifetime, but it doesn’t really matter; what had to be done, had been. The title track is a frequent presence in ‘Best Metal Song’ lists, and solely depicts all that is good about the album it’s found on. Viv Campbell can shred, but, in listening wisely to band-leader Ronnie, refrains his displays of guitar wankery until the solos. It’s safe to assume that the vast majority of the guitar sections were written by Ronnie himself. He recognizes that he is no guitar hero, but can ‘play as anyone can play’. Therein lies the magic of the album: its simplicity. Anyone can play, and love, these tunes.

My name is Tom Lancaster, and I hate Ozzy Osbourne. It hardly needs to be mentioned, but Ronnie James Dio is the best rock singer to have lived. The mainstream infatuation with Ozzy, and their lack of regard for Dio, is infuriating. Ozzy is an idiot, so it seems his appeal is appreciated by idiots. On Holy Diver, Dio’s vocals are so good that they almost render the music obsolete. This could have been an album of a cappella tracks, and it still would have gone platinum.

To think oneself above and beyond landmarks of Metal such as this album, is to manifest a lack of dignity, taste, and intelligence. In a society eternally growing too trendy for itself, it seems the most loyal and genuine subculture of music fans, the metalheads, are finally following suit. Fuck me. Satan help us all.