My favourite metal bands

 My favourite all time band are Dio

I started getting into music in a big way in the early to mid eighties, and my tastes veered towards the heavier spectrum. I was around a friend’s house and he played The Last in Line, and I was sold.

And even now, after all these years, after owning every album that Ronnie sang on, and loads more besides, it remains by favourite album, by miles. The music, the lyrics, sand the imagery are just amazing.

And I know everyone obsesses about Holy Diver, and yes, it’s a great album, but for me, that was just a dry run and The Last in Line was where a classic chemistry lineup pulled out all the stops and achieved metal perfection.

My first concert was Dio, the Sacred Heart tour, where I saw a ruined castle and a fire breathing dragon onstage, all of which was shedloads better than the lasers, which, a year earlier would have raised the roof.

With bars set this high in my metal induction, nothing else was coming close. Dio were one of those bands that I always saw when they toured. I even tripped over to Germany in 2000 because I missed the UK dates.

Sadly, Dio are no more, and the band follow now, not so much in Dio’s stead, because I was always into them as well, are Saxon.

Yeah, it’s never just one band, and as well as Dio, Saxon were another band I got into, and although they were a whole different thing to Dio, I still love them. Both bands just spoke to me with their music, and as with Dio, Saxon are always a must-see band for me. No one does riffs like Saxon, and their live show remains one of the most entertaining ways to spend a couple of hours you can spend your money on. Constantly under estimated, under rated, and repeatedly written off, Saxon haven’t gone away, and nor will they as long as I draw breath.

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