Ronnie James Dio is back and is better than ever. After an illustrious 35 year career, Dio has jumped into his first concept album. What an awesome project it is.
The album tells the story of the Book of Magica, Good vs. Evil. Evil prevails in the beginning, but the war is far from over.
The CD contains an 18 minute track that contains the story in spoken form. The printed version is also included for fans who want to read along or just prefer to read it instead.
The music is classic Dio. A bit of a departure from the last couple of albums. It is a return to the Dream Evil days. Back in the fold is Craig Goldy, Jimmy Bain, and Simon Wright. The songs are very well written, some heavy some not. Overall, a very well written album.
Production is very good. The album cranks and sounds good. As mentioned before, the story is included in written form separately from the booklet. Band photos are also included on the story sheet. Lyrics, artwork, and thanks lists are also included in the booklet.
This is a great album arriving at a great time. Metal is warming up and albums like this one will only help the status of the genre. It comes highly recommended from the Resource.
Some bands have absolutely no problems keeping their status as a very heavy in your face metal band. Pantera has always prided themselves in the fact they they do not wimp out. Guess what.... the status is intact.
Reinventing the Steel is the Pantera formula at its best. Bruising, heavy music with over the top vocals. This album is heavy from start to finish. No slow down stuff here. Not one thing resembling "Planet Caravan" can be found. Is this good? Depends on who you might ask. I expect an album lineup from these guys like the one on this album. If you are a fan that can take some butt-kicking but need to slow down once in a while, it's not gonna happen with this disc.
The tunes were produced by the band and sound pretty good. There are only ten tracks, but these ten will leave you sweating. Lyrics are included but in hand-written form. Never cared much for that, but it will suffice. The band photo is behind the CD. Very cool, they all have their long hair back. Its a sign...
This will probably be the best selling Pantera album, but isn't a whole lot different than their early Atlantic stuff. If you like that stuff, pick this album up.
