DIO – Evil Or Divine ~ Live In New York City [Digitally Remastered +2] (2021)

Wendy Dio / Niji Entertainment and BMG have started a ‘DIO live album reissue series’, and one of the pair released today is this “Evil Or Divine ~ Live In New York City“.
Originally released in 2005 and now out of print, the recording has been fully remastered and for the first time fas will own the complete live show experience as if you were there, as this reissue includes the never-before-released version of “Lord Of The Last Day” and an amazing Simon Wright drum solo not on the original release.
I must say the sound quality has been incredibly improved, and it’s nice to have the complete show now.

Wendy Dio, who has served as the curator of Dio’s musical legacy and everything that relates to her late husband’s career (including the Ronnie James Dio hologram tour), says: “I am very excited to be working with BMG, a label that still has a passion for rock music. They will be making the complete DIO catalog available again with some interesting surprises.”

One of the advantages that Ronnie Dio had on this tour over previous ones is that he had the most technically and musically proficient set of musicians behind him ever. Bassist Jimmy Bain holds the bottom of the arrangement strongly, as he has consistently done since he and Dio began their collaboration in Rainbow.
Drummer Simon Wright puts on a hell of a technical display during his allotted solo time, making one wonder how he managed to keep those insanely simple beats when in AC/DC without having a breakdown. Scott Warren proves apt to the task of playing all keyboard parts previously handled by the likes of Jens Johansson and Claude Schnell.

But the true technical wizard of the bunch proves to be Doug Aldrich, whose interpretations of the various solos coined by Dio’s previous collaborators is rivaled only by his amazingly varied display during his own solo sections, hitting upon such contrasting styles as Classical, Rock, Jazz, and Blues.

This album starts with ‘Killing The Dragon’, and as usual Ronnie’s voice is spot on for a man of so many years. And Doug’s guitar playing is even better than in the studio, especially with his killer guitar solo. Then you get solid blocks of Dio classics until you get to ‘Don’t Talk To Strangers’. This is an amazing track, namely again because of Doug’s guitar solo. Vivian Campbell would’ve shed a tear over how tastefully done Doug did this solo in the same phrasing as he did oh so many years ago.

Then you get Doug’s guitar solo. Yet again, an amazing guitar solo. You can really tell that he is influenced by guys like Hendrix and Tony Iommi as you listen to the things he plays.
Then you get more solid Dio [and Black Sabbath] classics… Notable is ‘Heaven and Hell’ with its guitar work and tempo change, as well as for the extra line of lyrics Ronnie adds in.
But the show closes with an amazingly upbeat version of We Rock with a great guitar solo with some added “We Rocks” and “You Rock” at the end that make it classic.
Highly Recommended

Disc 1
1 – Killing The Dragon (Live)
2 – Egypt (The Chains are On)
3 – Children of the Sea (Live)
4 – Push (Live)
5 – Drum Solo (Live)
6 – Stand Up and Shout (Live)
7 – Rock and Roll (Live)
8 – Don’t Talk to Strangers (Live)
9 – Man On The Silver Mountain (Live)
10 – Guitar Solo [Doug Aldrich] (Live)
11 – Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll (Live)
12 – Man On The Silver Mountain [reprise] (Live)

Disc 2
01 – Lord of the Last Day (Live)
02 – Fever Dreams (Live)
03 – Holy Diver (Live)
04 – Heaven and Hell (Live)
05 – The Last In Line (Live)
06 – Cheers fo an Encore
07 – Rainbow in the Dark (Live)
08 – We Rock (Live)

Vocals: Ronnie James Dio
Guitar: Doug Aldrich
Bass: Jimmy Bain
Drums: Simon Wright
Keyboards: Scott Warren

BUY IT
www.amazon.co.uk/Evil-Divine-Live-York-City/dp/B08K4SZ197