Product Description

Track Listing 1. Killing The Dragon
2. Egypt/Children of the Sea
3. Push
4. Drum Solo
5. Stand Up and Shout
6. Rock and Roll
7. Don't Talk to Strangers
8. Man on the Silver Mountain
9. Guitar Solo
10. Long Love Rock and Roll
11. Lord of the Last Day
12. Fever Dream
13. Holy Diver
14. Heaven and Hell
15. The Last in Line
16. Rainbow in the Dark
17. We Rock

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #78189 in DVD
• Brand: DIO
• Released on: 2003-07-01
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 100 minutes

Customer Reviews

Ageless rocker . . .
His work with Rainbow, Black Sabbath, and as a solo artist with his band Dio, has made Ronnie James Dio one of heavy metal's most recognizable and beloved voices. For 30 years, Dio has been enchanting audiences with his unique brand of mystical metal.

Captured on video is a 2002 performance at NYC's Roseland Ballroom. Dio's voice sounds as good as ever. For a man over 60, he truly looks to be in remarkable physical condition, prancing about onstage in black bellbottoms, displaying his trademark hand gestures. In support of Killing the Dragon, the band includes bass player Jimmy Bain, guitarist Doug Aldrich, keyboard player Scott Warren and drummer Simon Wright.

The presentation of the performance is straightforward and without many technical frills. Absent are multi screen views and excessive cuts. Views of the stage are mostly unobstructed, though the picture quality may not be the greatest at times. For sound, you can choose between stereo, Dolby 5.1 and DTS.

The set list includes songs that span the length of Dio's distinguished career. Though favoring his early solo works, there is a bit of Rainbow, with a dash of Sabbath. The newer songs Push, Rock and Roll and Killing the Dragon fit in well with classics like Stand Up and Shout, Don't Talk to Strangers and Holy Diver. Guitarist Doug Aldrich certainly deserves high praise. Playing with flair and swagger, he takes on the daunting task of incorporating the licks and tricks of players like Tommy Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Craig Goldy and Vivian Campbell into his own style. Sandwiched in between the Rainbow classics, Man on the Silver Mountain, and Long Live Rock and Roll is Aldrich's diverse near nine minute guitar solo. Restricted to mostly playing the music of others, this is the guitarist's opportunity to really cut loose. Aldrich also shines during a smoldering performance of Heaven and Hell, that is remarkably close to Sabbath's original.

The arrangement of the show does have some rough spots. Just three songs into the show, a Simon Wright drum solo seems inappropriate. Despite a solid effort by Aldrich, the combo number Egypt/Children of the Sea doesn't quite mesh. And some of the newer songs just aren't in the same class as Dio's earlier material. The plodding Lord of the Last Day drags things down to a crawl, and Fever Dreams raises the energy only slightly. These are however minor matters, as there can be no complaints about the band's classic encore numbers, The Last in Line, Rainbow in the Dark, and a rousing version of We Rock.

There are some interesting bonus materials. In a too brief interview, the articulate Dio covers some fascinating subject matter. A more extended interview with one of metal's bona fide icons would have been truly enlightening. A short video entitled Behind the Scenes, features events involving the band and crew, shot by Wendy Dio, wife of "Ronald". A photo gallery displays shots of the band and crew with their families and the fans. Last is the very creative and cool video for Push, that features an appearance by School of Rock's, Jack Black. This energetic production shows that there is, believe it or not, a "fun" side to Ronnie Dio.

Evil or Divine captures the essence of a Dio performance, and is recommended without reservations to fans of heavy metal. Ronnie James Dio is an icon, and a true master at his craft, and shows no signs of slowing down. Guitarist Aldrich has since left the group, as has long time bass player Jimmy Bain, so this concert also serves as a record of this particular lineup of the band.

Please have this DVD re-edited/re-mastered!
This performance is excellent. Dio's band is great, especially his guitar player. The audio quality is as good as any DVD I've heard. Possibly better. Powerful and clear, like sitting at the sound board. A pure joy to hear!

HOWEVER, as other reviewers have mentioned, the video quality is really poor by DVD standards. Some say it looks like a VHS tape. Here's what I think is going on:

I have no reason to doubt the raw footage looks just fine. (No professional video camera produces such grainy images.) I think the guys that edited and mastered it got a little too "clever" with the digital tools available to them. What everyone's seeing in the picture looks to me like artificial "noise" intentionally introduced into the picture (like we can do with image files in PhotoShop), making everything have little gray dots dancing around in it. I have never seen a DVD picture like it.

Even worse is, for some bizzare reason, they have some sort of stop motion thing going on during the whole concert where the image changes only EVERY OTHER FRAME! (Use your player to step through frame-by-frame and you'll see what I mean.) On some of the footage, like the drum solo, it's even slowed down to every four frames! (The "Push" video included as an extra on the disk doesn't have this same problem.)

Fortunately, the sound and performance on this DVD are so great, I think most fans (like me) will overlook the poor picture quality. (You get used to it.) However, Spitfire, why not make this as good as it could be and have the thing re-edited? (I'm sure the answer is, money, but that's sad.)

Metal God on DVD
Its about time! One of the greatest metal masters "Dio" is finally on Dvd in a full concert. Whats even more fascinating is that Ronnies voice is still fresh and powerful. Since this is a 2002 concert I was concerned his voice wouldn't live up to his early years... but trust me it sure does! The Dvd sound quality is superb, it's presented in 5.1 digital surround sound(dts), hence if you own a digital home theater sound system then youre in for a treat. The picture quality however isn't as crisp as most would like it to be, still it isn't bad.
The songs perfomed here include Dio's Rainbow and Black Sabbath days, and obviously his songs from his solo career. Songs include; Heaven and Hell, Man on the Silver Mountain, The last in Line, Killing the Dragon, Stand Up and Shout, Holy Diver, and 11 more. I only wish Dio performed some songs from his "Elf" albums like 'Dixie Lee Junction,'and 'Hoochie Koochie Lady.' Well to conclude--this dvd is simply superb. Dio is still at his best and rockin hard. I definitely recommend this to all Dio fans, as well as anyone else who wishes to see a true metal god in Concert.