Label: Mercury Records (Japan), PPD-3070
Style: Heavy Metal, Hard Rock
Country: Portsmouth, New Hampshire, U.S. (July 10, 1942 - May 16, 2010)
Time: 41:32
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 269 Mb
The first track, 'Stand Up and Shout', is reminiscent of 'Turn Up the Night' from Sabbath's 'Mob Rules'. Fast, hard-hitting and a great introduction. I reall enjoy this one.
Then comes the title track. Listening to it now, properly and with my full attention (and great headphones!), I realise that it's actually a good track. I still don't really feel anything with it, but I certainly enjoy it more than I thought. It still feels like a weak point of the album to me. I imagine hearing it 40 years ago upon release would have had a greater impact.
'Gypsy' - this is more like it. Lovely soaring riffs above heavy, punchy riffs - with some banshee-like vocals from Dio.
Some more fantastic vocals on 'Caught in the Middle', and I love the driving bass throughout. The chorus on this track is a highlight of the album for me. The way the guitars climb, then repeat with Dio giving it his all over the top makes the hairs stand up on my arms.
'Don't Talk to Strangers' - the intro to this reminded me of Tony Iommi's thinking behind 'Master of Reality'. By putting some quieter songs on the album, it made the heavier tracks feel heavier. I felt that on this song thanks to the intro. Not only that, but it makes for a nice respite between the metal. When the song kicks in, it makes me think of Iron Maiden. (I should mention I'm not into Maiden, I only know their hits. It feels like they've based all their songs off this track!).
'Straight Through the Heart' - monstrous intro! That riff is absolutely killer and the vocals are top-notch.
Another moment of rest during the intro of 'Invisible'. At first this one fools you into thinking a cheesy 80s ballad is coming, but that's not the case. The riffs are back, and stomping their way through the stories Dio sings to us here.
'Rainbow in the Dark' - I see this is one of Dio's most famous tracks, and I can understand why! The keys on the intro / chorus feel very 80s and that makes me think I've heard it before, but it's such a generic 80s sound it could have been from any song from the decade. I like it though, it's not over-the-top and only dates the song slightly. Riff-wise, I love this and it easily features one of Dios best vocals on the album.
I feel like 'Shame on the Night' works really well as an album-closer. The vocals are ridiculously strong on this one, the instrumental break and breakdown are excellent and the epic backing vocals towards the outro give it a medievel feeling.
(reddit.com/r/LetsTalkMusic/comments/18t8dn1/dios_holy_diver_album_is_fantastic_but/)
Album recorded and mixed in the analog domain - AAD. That is, a minimum of digital processing.
A=Analog. D=digital. The first letter stands for how the music was recorded. The second letter for how it was mixed. The third letter stands for the format (all CD's will have D as the last letter).
01. Stand Up And Shout (03:18)
02. Holy Diver (05:51)
03. Gypsy (03:38)
04. Caught In The Middle (04:17)
05. Don't Talk To Strangers (04:53)
06. Straight Through The Heart (04:34)
07. Invisible (05:25)
08. Rainbow In The Dark (04:14)
09. Shame On The Night (05:19)
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