Product Description

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: DIO
Title: LAST IN LINE
Street Release Date: 07/07/1987
Domestic
Genre: HEAVY METAL

Track Listing

1. We Rock
2. Last in Line
3. Breathless
4. I Speed at Night
5. One Night in the City
6. Evil Eyes
7. Mystery
8. Eat Your Heart Out
9. Egypt (The Chains Are On)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11791 in Music
• Brand: DIO
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Customer Reviews

Dio at full strength
Holy Diver was an excellent debut from Dio, and this album, just a year later, continued to show
Dio at full glory. Still, I think most people would agree that it does fall a bit short of Holy Diver,
but still it ranks very high. The album kicks off with one of heavy metal's top ever openers - We Rock.
And indeed it rocks. This is the classic type of metal opener you'd imagine: fast, furious and it rocks!
Excellent. The title track is next, and is the highlight of the album. The Last In Line for me is one
of Dio's top-3 songs ever, along with Holy Diver and Rainbow In The Dark, both from the previous album.
Everything is perfect about this song, and I think it would be correct to categorize it as something
between Holy Diver and Rainbow In The Dark, great stuff! Breathless is next and is a good metal song,
quite fast, decent chorus, and strong solo's. I Speed At Night has some of metal's best solo's, and
has an extemely cool riff. One Night In The City is a mid-tempo song with some strong riffs, that would
best be compared to 'Shame On The Night' from the previous album (nothing to do with the 'night' though).
Evil Eyes is another short and fast rocker, sort of like Gypsy, with strong lines throughout, very good. Mystery is a ballad, with some good keyboard work by Ronnie himself. Its slow but manages to stay solid.
It reminds you a little of Rainbow In The Dark, but surely not of that caliber. Eat Your Heart Out
is a nice mid-tempo song, with nice solo's by Vivian Campbell, once again.
The closing song is Dio's best ballad - Egypt (The Chains Are On). Its a slow song, but has excellent
crunching riffs, great lyrics, and is a real classic. At the same year Iron Maiden released
'Powerslave' which also deals with the same subject, has roughly the same length, and is also an excellent
song, interesting. In conclusion this is a very solid metal album. Not as good as Holy Diver, because some of the tracks
are just missing that energy crunch that was vivid throughout almost all of Holy Diver.
But its still a must for all Dio fans for sure, and for all serious metallists as well.
Excellent musicanship, and Dio has never reached this level of music ever since.
Highly recommended.

Pure, uncorrupted metal
THIS is EXACTLY what metal should sound like. Dio knows EXACTLY what he's doing. He truly is the metal God. Since I got this cd yesterday, I seriously have not stopped listening to it. I got in trouble for listening to it at work today. When I think "metal", I think DIO!!!

The opener "We Rock" is one of the best openers I have ever heard. It just takes hold of you and rocks the hell out of you. It is so cool because in the chorus, when he shouts "we rock!", you know he's so right!! The whole band is incredible, and when they play together, they truly do rock. The title track "The Last In Line" is incredible also. It has an epic kind of sound, and the main synth line is mind-blowing.

The intro to "Breathless" absolutely freaked the hell out of me. The breathing thing is insanely weird and freaky. Dio sings so well throughout the album too. Trading off with Vivian Campbell's awesome guitar soloing, they make one of the best vocalist-guitarist duos ever. Plus, the rhythm section is amazing too. Vinny Appice is one of my favorite drummers, and Jimmy Bain tears it up. The production is excellent, you can hear all the instruments perfectly at all times.

My favorite songs are "We Rock", "The Last In Line", "I Speed At Night" (a great fast rocker), "Mystery" (a really catchy single), and "Egypt (The Chains Are On)". This last song is one of the greatest album closers in metal history. Its main riff is totally awesome, and the whole song is an epic adventure in that slow-paced Dio kind of way.

What more can I say? Every single song is a winner, with the possible exception of "Eat Your Heart Out" which is kind of run-of-the-mill. But other than that one song, all the songs are top-notch metal. I couldn't have hoped for a better metal album. Dio typifies the perfect metal sound. He rocks, he knows it, and he sings about it.

Watered down a bit, but still solid
Dio's debut album, "Holy Diver" was a metal classic, so Dio and company decided to do the same thing again. . .plus a few changes and compromises presumably intended to gain more airplay. Now, there really isn't anything wrong with this in theory, especially since metal like this was mainstream at the time anyway, but, in practice, these changes weakened the sound a fair bit. The biggest hit, by far, comes in the production. The guitars are weak and distant and just totally wussed out. Now, "Holy Diver" wasn't exactly the most bone-crushingly heavy album you're ever gonna here, and it was more about the energy and catchiness than the intensity. Nevertheless, this is metal, and you need some crunch, and "The Last in Line" just doesn't have enough. Beyond this, they've also increased the number of synths they used. I've no strict ban against synths in metal, but they need be used sparingly and well, which doesn't always happen here. They're not a huge problem, but a few tracks are weakened by poor synth work.

More significant than the minor changes in the sound, however, is the drop off in the quality of the songwriting. Most of the songs here are quite good, a few very good, but it's got nowhere near the consistency of "Holy Diver". Like that album, "The Last in Line" opens with a speed metal opener followed by the more mid-paced title track. Both are solid, if not totally remarkable. ("I Speed At Night" would've been a better opener, as it's another speed-metal number, but just better than "We Rock") "Breathless" is the first real standout, a good, driving mid-paced track with one of those unforgettable Dio choruses. "One Night in the City" is even better, and probably the best track here. It's one of the most overtly commerical tracks here, a quaso-ballad story song, but it's still the strongest track, with Dio's most intense, operatic vocals on the album.

The second half isn't as solid as the first, though it too has no obvious filler. (Though "Mystery" come close.) "Egypt (The Chains Are On)" is probably the strongest track here. Honestly, there should probably be more going on in it, as it's meant to be an epic, but it never gets dull, and Dio's overwhelming vocals carry the day once again. The lyrics are a bit silly, but that's part of the fun. "Evil Eyes" is probably the next best late track, and is fairly comparable to "Breathless", if not quite as good, though it suffers from some unneeded synth work.

I'm coming across as more critical of "The Last in Line" than I actually feel. It's a solid metal album through and through. Still, comparisons to "Holy Diver" are inevitable, and "The Last in Line" is bound to come up short when looked at this way. Still, it's more than worthwhile in its own right.