Jorn - Dio

I must admit to approaching this Ronnie James Dio tribute album with some mild trepidation. What some might perceive as a lame, egregious cash-grab opportunity may well be just that; let’s face it, the guy isn’t even cold and the various non-sanctioned tributes and musical accolades are literally frothing at the mouth of the music business. That said, Norway’s power metal vocalist Jorn Lande issues an entire album’s worth of praise in Dio, a collective of covers spanning Mr. Dio’s entire heavy metal career. Sooo…does it stand up as a pure tribute or pollute the stream with opportunistic subterfuge?

The only original track on here is the “Song for Ronnie James” and it’s nothing great, literally steeped in AOR sensibility and otherwise drowned in uninspired arrangement. It just doesn’t sound very much like a tribute fit for such a great man, but that’s just me. At over eight minutes it runs entirely too long, creating a boring trip at about the five minute mark. It certainly is nothing close to “Stargazer”, that’s for sure.  As for the cover songs they may as well be one of a million cover version by everyone from a local bar band to a power metal band with an all-star lineup. Again, this album is just boring to me in all aspects and I see no real reason for it other than to get the Jorn name out there past the Yngwie Malmsteen history. Sure, some tracks like “Shame on the Night” and “Stand Up and Shout” have moments of fluid resonance, but they are very few and far between. In short, what we have here are largely mundane versions of classic Dio songs that might well have been left alone at the onset.

The bright spots here are “Lonely is the Word / Letters from Earth”, which is a very powerful hit that is a rib-sticker for sure. The music is very ‘Iommian’ if a bit subdued. It’s a very fitting tribute on a subpar record. The track I was both dreading and anticipating was the Rainbow classic “Kill the King” and it definitely sounds far too “power” metal for my taste, though that shouldn’t take away from otherwise decent guitar work in it. Jorn’s vocals on this track are quite inspired, calling all the best elements of Mr. Dio’s gutsiness circa 1978.

The shame here is that Jorn is a fine vocalist and he surrounded himself with some stellar musicians for Dio, including guitarist Tore Moren, who calls upon every influence quite nicely, but this album just does little to resonate. I won’t go all in and say he cashed in on Mr. Dio’s passing, but an entire album’s worth of Dio material was both unnecessary and untimely. What amounts to a run-of-the-mill tribute album could have, at the very least, had a plethora of guests to round out the diversity rather than make it appear as one man’s lack of vision towards a possible contractual obligation. If the motives were clean, the music should have been a bit more inspired by influence and respect than incidental tragedy.                 

Release Date: July 2nd, 2010
Label: Frontiers Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Song for Ronnie James
2.  Invisible
3.  Shame on the Night
4.  Push
5.  Stand Up and Shout
6.  Don't Talk to Strangers
7.  Lord of the Last Day
8.  Night People
9.  Sacred Heart
10.  Sunset Superman
11.  Lonely Is the Word /
       Letters From Earth (2010)
12.  Kill the King
13.  Straight Through The Heart (live)

Total playing time: 01:06:29

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*Comments:

Reviewer: Chris

January 26, 2011