• AllMyVinyl #16
• Band: Dio
• Album Title: Angry Machines
• Release Date: 23 Sep 1996
• Date purchased: N/A
• Location purchased: Comp from record label
• Color of vinyl: splatter orange
• Number of discs: 1
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

I finally hit Dio in this, and alphabetically, we get to my least favorite Dio album first – Angry Machines.

Part of it is that it’s got my least favorite Dio guitarist on it – Tracy Grijalva (aka Tracy G).  I always felt his guitar sound was too raw, too “not Dio”, it has a chainsaw sound that I never cared for.  Having said that, it’s not like it’s unlistenable, but I cannot tell you the last time I listened to this album in full intentionally before today.   In fact, one of the copies I have (more on that in a minute) was still sealed until 6 Sep 2024.  Now..

Originally, I never bought the album when new.  My Sabbath site was up and running and well established by then, and the record label sent me the CD of the thing back then (still have that).  That copy is still with me, although I’ve moved all my physical CDs into long term storage (booklets basically, I shit canned all the jewel cases, and kept the CD’s and the inserts.   However in Nov of 2019 it was announced the latter four Dio albums were being re-released on vinyl & CD as they’d been out of print forever.  These were re-released on 21 Feb 2020.  The vinyls had lenticular art, which was cool looking.  However, Angry Machines here I never got around to listening to because of well, it being my least fav Dio album.  So jump forward in time earlier in 2024, and I got a copy of “The StuDIO albums 1996-2004” from BMG, which had the same four albums, but with standard covers in a box.  That one I opened as they have pretty cool looking splatter art, and was the one I listened to today.  The lenticular ones have standard black vinyl (that’s why I opened it today, to see what was in there).  There’s a picture of the splatter vinyl below, it’s kind of cool looking.

As for the music..  I did listen to the album while I was at work today (100% work from home), and while it was OK, my opinion did not change.  There’s a lot of this album I didn’t care for.  Some of it is quite good,  I rather liked Golden Rules – it’s my fav song on the album.  Ronnie’s vocals on “This is Your Life” are outstanding.  But overall, I far prefer the other album they did with Tracy G to this one.  Here’s a few notes I took while listening (not intended to be a comprehensive breakdown of the tracks)…

Institutional Man – the vibe of this song is off. Not sure what it is, but I never cared for this track. Odd choice to lead off the album with – kind of reminds me of the track Illusion of Power for Sabbath’s Forbidden album feeling out of place.

Don’t Tell the Kids – has a much more traditional sounding riff, one I liked right away. Also has some timing changes, something I always loved in a song.

Hunter of the Heart – straightforward song. Not great. Not bad. Just kind of there.

Stay Out of My Mind – it starts off with an odd riff, which I’ll put down to the guitarist, but once it gets past that, I rather enjoy the song. There’s an odd part about 3/4 of the way through the song that has orchestration, I guess we’d call it? My guess is it’s meant to aurally sound like insanity? That’s all I can come up with. I get it from a message in the song, but as music, it’s quite odd.

Big Sister – Lyrics start off with the word “who controls your mind”, I thought I was still listening to the last song (ha)! When I started this album and looked at the list of songs, I had this filed under a list of songs I liked, but I didn’t care for this – except for the fast & hard bridge part halfway through. Also, the closing riff was pretty enjoyable.

Double Monday – Liked this a lot. No deep thoughts, but I did like it.

Golden Rules – My favorite song on the album. Adore the ruff that runs though this. The album’s title appears here in lyrics, but that’s not why. Thought the riff sounded most like classic Dio than anything else on the album. Song ends the way it starts, too – the outro matches the intro.

Dying in America – This came out about a year after a WASP song called “Goodbye America”, so in my head, I cross connected them. Thought it was some wave of political statements in metal. I was wrong (I think ), but that’s what I always think of when I hear this. As a piece of music, it’s got a heavy riff.

This is Your Life – An anachronism in the Dio catalogue. This kind of song wasn’t done on any other Dio album – it’s pretty much just Ronnie and a piano. It’s quite good, and reminds me of some of his earlier work. Definite showcase for Ronnie’s vocals and speaks to those who say he can’t sing.

That’s pretty much it.  The next time I get to Dio on the vinyl project, I’ll probably have a lot nicer things to say.  As far as I know there’s no official promo videos for this album.  I did find this interview done during the tour, so I’l include it here.