• AllMyVinyl #158
• Band: Dio
• Album Title: Killing the Dragon
• Release Date: 14 May 2002
• Date purchased: N/A – see below
• Location purchased: N/A – see below
• Color of vinyl: black
• Number of discs: 1
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

Ah, Dio.  Someone I’ve seen a metric ton of times live on nearly every tour he’s done for the Dio band.  Couple of times in Sabbath as well, but this album and this tour are strong memories for me.  The tour for this album was memorable for me – I saw it twice.  Once was a standalone Dio show, and the other was a festival show where Dio was the first band on a three band set that also included The Scorpions & Deep Purple.

I want to get right to the lineup here.  Mostly because it occurred to me that outside of the first three Dio studio albums, none of them had the same lineup two albums in a row.  It was quite Ritchie Blackmore like, although I don’t think Ronnie would start randomly firing people.  While there were some core Dio band mates that were there for a lot of the albums, there were a lot of changes from album to album – this one no different.  The lineup on this album was:

Ronnie James Dio – Vocals
Doug Aldrich – Guitar
Jimmy Bain – Bass
Simon Wright – Drums
Scott Warren – Keys

The change here from the prior album (Magica) was the change in guitarists.  Out again was Craig Goldie, in was Doug Aldrich.  This was the only album that Doug was on – well a studio album anyway.  He was later on the “Holy Diver Live” album as well.   I don’t recall hearing WHY there was a change.  It couldn’t have been that bad of a thing, as Goldie was back for the next album, and he has a couple of writing credits on THIS album as well.  My Black Sabbath site was well established at this point, so I saw a lot of stuff, and I don’t recall reading anything on why they changed from Goldie & Aldrich.  Simon Wright was Ronnie’s drummer at this point, and of course Jimmy Bain has been with Ronnie forever – but is Bain’s final studio album with Dio.  It doesn’t stray too far from the traditional Dio sound (like the Tracy G albums did).  It’s a pretty darned solid Dio album as I’ll get into when I get into the tracks.

Of course since I’ve had my Sabbath site going, I never actually bought this album – this was one of the ones where the record label would send me copies myself for promoting it.  I also back in the day would get extras to give away on my Sabbath site, something that’s not done as much anymore (labels keep their comps to spread out more not send like half a dozen to me at once like they used to).  So I still have my original CD of this album to this day.   As far as I can tell, it was never printed on vinyl in 2002 – those were some lean years for vinyl.  It was printed in 2009, and on a picture disc for Record Store day in 2011.

There was also a “tour edition” of the album later in 2002 from the OG label (Spitfire).  That CD had two live tracks (Fever Dreams & Rainbow in the Dark) – but the oddity there is that it was Ronnie singing with Deep Purple (minus Ian) as his backing band.  There was also the music video for Push on that release as well as a screensaver on the data track portion of that release.  I remember at the time thinking that was a cool idea to get people interested in buying – to include the extra content.  I do have this somewhere, but buried deep in the archives, not worth it to dig it out.  :)

Then we get to 2020.  This album was re-released in 2020 on CD and printed on vinyl from BMG for Niji / Wendy.   A new pressing, and they created new artwork for the cover.  It was a big time release.  In fact, they released four Dio albums at the same time, this was one of them (the others being Master of the Moon, Magica, & Angry Machines).  By all accounts, it was a great release.  Albums sounded good with a remaster, had some nice packaging – a cool lenticular cover on each….  Except for one problem.   Someone didn’t proof the copy (or just missed it), as the song Guilty was printed on here was “Guitly”.  It was pretty unfortunate as it couldn’t be recalled when I saw it.  I told Wendy about it, and she was shall they say NOT happy that happened.

The following year BMG re-released the albums AGAIN in a box set – this time without the lenticular cover, but the vinyl was a colored vinyl.  For KTD, it was a marbled yellow-ish color.  There’s a photo of this vinyl below.  The exterior sleeve still has the Guitly misprint, which REALLY surprised me.  I seem to recall reading that they did this extra box because they had a lot of extra material so it was easier to repackage into a new set to sell some copies?  But not sure about that, could be BS.  Either way it was odd Guitly was still on here (but it would support the use existing materials theory).  This box set was officially called “Dio – The StuDIO album 1996-2004”.  This set also included a 7″ vinyl single of Electra, which was intended for the Magica II album Ronnie was working on when he died.

So yeah, I have quite a few copies of this.  The one I’ll be listening to is the colored version from this box set.  It’s the same mastering as the solo release from the year prior – just colored vinyl vs black.  Not interested in getting into an argument over color vinyl vs black audio fidelity.  I just like the way it looks.

No matter what version of the album you play, the music on it is quite good.  That’s a common theme with Dio albums.  Even if you don’t like an individual album – or a handful of songs from it, a “Dio band album” is always produced well.  They’re of a uniform high quality, and that’s not something you can say for every band.

Killing the Dragon – The title track for this album is easily the most accessible for me.  It has a really catchy, galloping guitar riff.  That’s got to be down to the new guitarist. But as I said before, it doesn’t sound too much different than the traditional Dio band song.  It’s both a mix of a new sound and the classic sound, one I always loved it.

The lyrics are an also peak Dio.  The phrases “digital dreams”, “”hunt for the Queen”, “we’ll hunt for the Lord”, “time to be Killing the Dragon again”… All of that stuff paints a very familiar picture insofar as Ronnie’s lyrical toolbox goes.  The only thing that’s missing from the lyrics here is a reference to rainbows.  In the end I don’t know what bloody any of it actually MEANS, but I love the way that Ronnie fit all these words together.

It leads into a really nice guitar solo from Doug.  Something I noticed when listening today is that that galloping riff I mentioned runs through the entire song (except the solo).  Sometimes that can be boring, but it isn’t here.  It serves the song well.  I quite love this song, and while I can’t say I ever really noticed the bass and drum sections here, they’re all part of the tapestry of this song – love the guitar work, love the lyrics and the delivery of them.   Banger of a track to start the penultimate Dio studio album – no signs of fading out.

Along Comes a Spider – This is a perfect followup to the title track.  Thematically it coms in well right after the prior one. Sometimes bands don’t go for two in a row of the same thing (unless you’re Pantera or AC/DC and they’re all the same thing – ha)…  but seriously.  I quite like the placement of this on the album.  It’s once again my favorite thing.  A three and a half minute fast song which doesn’t waste a lot of time getting to the point.  The song does have a short intro section before the full band kicks in, and I do have to say that intro guitar sound fits the title of the song well.  While I don’t know what exact sound an electric guitar would make that would make you go “OK – spider” – I do like this one.   Not much to say about this lyrically, but it’s another that I get off on the jam.  Good stuff.

Scream – Scream has a slower, heavier riff.  It’s not 70’s era Black Sabbath sludge levels of slow, but for a Dio track, it’s a bit slower.   Nice change of pace from the two faster opening tracks.  I dig the lyrics in the chorus – very catchy.  Found myself singing them..

But in the darkness behind your smile you scream – Scream
Scream for the crazy ones
Scream at the things you’ve done
Scream at the rising sun

This was a song that I sat here and just took in – was jamming with the core beat of the song (hello Jimmy Bain).  One of those songs that seems to live to enjoy the chorus.  Very much enjoyed this, but I don’t have a ton of words for it because I just sat there and dug it vs analyzed it.

Better in the Dark – Back to the fast stuff again.  It does start off with a slower intro, but quickly speeds up, and the main riff that runs through this I quite like.  Definitely borne from the same fretboard that birthed the first two tracks on this album.  I’ve always liked this album since it was new, but I don’t think I ever consciously noticed how well the songs mesh together with each other like this.

It also has something that you don’t get a ton of in Dio tracks – a bridge that focuses on the bass guitar.  While it’s not a full on bass solo or something, Jimmy is far more out in front than he usually is in Dio tracks.

Lyrically it has something to do with monsters in the dark, but that didn’t bear a lot of attention for me, what worked here was the riffage – something that’s been VERY strong on this album so far.

Rock & Roll – The longest song on the album (at 6:14).  It starts off slow like it might be something on the order of Sign of the Southern Cross or perhaps Die Young, but it isn’t.  It’s a relatively slow paced track.   It’s probably the only song on the album I don’t really care for.  It’s not awful or anything – there’s parts I like “We all sing Gloria” or the slower part from 1:04 – to about 1:50…. But overall this is one of those songs that repeats itself a lot, and it doesn’t work for me.

Push – The big single from the album.  This had one thing going for it that no Dio song had in a very long time – a music video.   The start of it had Tenacious D at the start with a funny parody of some of Ronnie’s lyrics.  The video itself is just a performance thing.  Ronnie and the band are standing in a white void that really reminds me of the loading program from the Matrix for most of it (especially the part with Doug Aldrich and dozens and dozens of guitars moving past him).  There’s a sequence when they’re on stage, but most of it is the white void.

The main part of the song is a bit catchier with Ronnie saying “Push” all the time.  Musically it’s not the best thing on the album, but I don’t dislike it.  It’s just kind of “there”.   It gets a pass because it has a music video, and there was some attention paid to it because of that.  I finished the song, and realized I wrote a bunch of nothing about the song.  I wanted to take a moment and point out that it’s not bad or anything.  It’s just not the most musically interesting song to me.  Catchy chorus, and the guitar work is just “ok” – there’s a lot better elsewhere on the album.

Guilty – I have to be honest, after the 2020 pressings, I stopped thinking about this song because all I could think of was the spelling error in that specific pressing.  That’s totally unfair to Ronnie and the song, so I was determined to go into this with an open mind.  This is one of the slower songs on the album.  It’s got a nice fat end guitar riff in it.  It’s not one with a fast guitar riff, or anything that makes you want to go pick up your air guitar to play along – it’s not that kind of song.

The chorus is pretty simplistic, too.  Not the catchiest one Ronnie’s ever done.  He’s obviously going for a thing here, as it plods along for most of its 4:26 runtime.  I guess I find the general vibe of the song to be not that interesting.  Not that it HAS to be a fast song for me to be into it – lord knows that I like my share of slower tracks, but this also borders on the line of being uninteresting, too.

It just feels like this never gets going – even the guitar solo is pretty restrained and doesn’t reach out and grab you.

Throw Away Children – When work started on this album, Craig Goldie was still the guitarist for Dio, and this is one of the tracks he gets a co-write credit on.  It is however, not just “another” track on the album.  The track “Throw Away Children” was originally supposed to be a charity song like “Stars” was with different vocalists and whatnot. The intended beneficiary of the charity piece was called “Children of the Night“. They exist to protect runaway children from prostitution. Ronnie & Wendy supported this charity for a long time, but very much under the radar. Anyway, the charity song thing didn’t happen, and the song ended up on this album instead. Here’s an explanation:

“It was also important for Dio to express his somber emotions in “Throw Away Children.” The vocalist originally composed the song for The Children of the Night, a charity that Dio is closely associated with, whose mission is to rescue children from the ravages of street prostitution. Although he originally intended the song to be recorded in the same fashion as “Stars” [heavy metal’s answer to “We Are The World”], with various vocalists sharing the verses and guitarists sharing solos, “the powers that be deemed the song too depressing.”  “The song has to portray the truth and the truth is that children are out there being pimped, getting addicted to drugs, and dying of AIDS,” says Dio. “It is a heartfelt song that I had to include on the album.” The song includes an appearance by the King’s Harbor Church Children’s Choir. “When they began singing, the hair stood up on the back of my neck and our drummer, Simon Wright, had a tear in his eye,” admits Dio.”

That’s all text I had on my Black Sabbath site, but it was relevant, so I wanted to include it.  Musically, it’s a great track, I always dug it, even if you ignore the message.  It’s got a great heavy riff to it – sounds like something that would have fit in well in the Sabbath camp.

When you listen to this song, pay attention to the lyrics, known they were written as a charity piece to benefit an organization that helps keeps kids away from a life of prostitution – it hits much harder then.  “Someone’s thrown away their children / You can see them running from your smile”.  This is more a “message” song for me than a musical song, but I do enjoy the tune, too.   I always kind of felt it had an “album ender” vibe to it – I think it would have placed better last.  That’s just me, tho.

As we get to the back end of the album, I have to confess I don’t have a ton of memories of the last two songs.  As I sat here before listening to them, I couldn’t tell you anything about either of them.  It’s usually because when I get to Throw Away Children, I generally stop the album.  I generally don’t want to listen to more Dio after that one, I’ll generally repeat Children and then I’m done for awhile.  Still, there are two more songs on the album.

Before the Fall – What I found here for the penultimate track is one I wish I had remembered.  It’s one of my favorite things again – a 3:49 pretty fast paced song.  The main guitar riff sounds like something from another song, but I can’t place it.  Ronnie doesn’t need to copy himself – but the guitar riff might be inspired by something else I can’t put my finger on.   There’s a keyboard solo here, which is definitely unique.  It reminded me a bit of Jon Lord.  I mean nobody’s Jon Lord, but Scott Warren’s work here shows he was probably influenced by Mr. Lord.   Perhaps not a top shelf track, but one I enjoyed when listening today – a pleasant surprise to find here on the album.

Cold Feet – This feels like it’s trying to manufacture a mood.  It’s a bit on the slower side, but I get the feeling that it’s going for a style of song that would have turned up on Side 2 of the Dream Evil album – which I adore.  This one doesn’t hold up as well as those.  That album closed strongly, this one doesn’t.  Cold Feet isn’t a stinker, but it doesn’t reach out and grab me and make me want to re-play the album again.  Throw Away Children does – I repeat my stance it should have been last on the album, not this song.   One some of these songs where I am kind of “meh” towards, I can usually find one small part that I can latch onto and focus on and go “Well, that part is great”.  Can’t do that there.  It’s a pretty blah album ender.   Oh well.

One thing I forgot to mention earlier is that the 2020 pressings of the album had different cover art on the CD.  The vinyl version had the older known art on both the regular cover and the lenticular vinyl. But the CD version had totally different cover art.  I’m including it here for you to see.  The new art is fine – but it’s not the original which I’d known for 20 odd years at the time, so it’s the preferred version.

While this album fizzled out out a bit at the end (last two songs weren’t anything super stellar), there is a LOT to like on this album.  It’s the only studio album with Doug Aldrich on guitar, and I always wished he had done more with Ronnie.  While I do really enjoy Craig Goldie, I also REALLY enjoyed this album with Doug.  If I remember my timelines right, Doug went over to Whitesnake after this and was going to try and straddle both bands, but I’m guessing some egos got hurt in that, and Doug was out, bringing back Craig Goldie for the final Dio album which came after this.   Doug is also on my favorite individual Whitesnake studio track – one called “Ready to Rock“, so that did come out of it.

Doug’s contributions to this album are excellent, and it remains one of my favorite overall Dio studio albums (even if it trails off a bit at the end).  Good stuff here.  If you’ve never experienced this album, you really should.