**** The Very Beast of Dio by Dio – Excellent Dark Rock That Speaks to Downtrodden People

If I had to put this in a genre, I would have to call it dark rock.  In the same way, I would not classify Black Sabbath as metal, but as dark rock.  Surely, there is no essential problem to categorizing this music as metal.  This for me is just a personal category.  I believe that this categorization is the reason why my wife could listen to Dio, but not Morbid Angel, for example.  To her there are boundaries in music, and Dio does not cross the line to being a band like Slayer.  I would say that a more modern comparison to of a genre that this belongs in would be similar to Korn which I have heard described best as “Loud Rock.”  I would also call Korn dark rock, in addition to loud rock.

I would definitely recommend DIO to a fan of Korn, especially one who doesn’t mind more primitive production, or definitely to someone who enjoys listening to Black Sabbath, especially when Ozzy sang for them.  Also, fans of the metal band Manowar should definitely check out this album.  I imagine most of them already have.

I’ll also add that part of the reason I gave this cd 4 stars is that it is chock full of good songs.  It was a great cd for my hundred disc changer partly because every song is good and there are a lot of good song on it.

In the song, "Rainbow in the Dark," there is a lyric that says it all, "I cry out for magic."  For some of us, the one's whom have found that Gd has hidden himself, and is not worthy of calling upon, we hope that there can be some sort of magic that will get us through the dark depressive times.