Dio is dead

Ronnie James Dio, one of the most influential heavy metal rockers of all time, apparently succumbed this weekend to the stomach cancer he’s been fighting for the better part of a year. Dio rocked out with Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell, and his own band Dio, having chosen the name knowing it means “God” in Italian. He probably singlehandedly gave heavy metal its “satanic” and anti-religious flavor, playing it up to the chagrin of those that condemned it as devil music in the spirit of “no publicity is bad publicity”, and is even credited with the famous devil horns symbol.

For sheer sticking-it-to-religion-itude, the man went balls out from cradle to grave. For that, and for his ability to rock, we salute him.

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Dio is dead
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5 thoughts on “Dio is dead

  1. 1

    When people mentioned he had died, I didn’t recall the name; but I did recognize the music.
    (I can’t remember names of people I actually know)

  2. 3

    I had no clue who he was. Based on facebook friends that joined the RIP group, I figured he was just a guy from Middleton, NS.

  3. 4

    He was not as big a part of my teenage years as my early-adulthood. I really only started liking some forms of heavy metal (or Nine Inch Nails, or basically anything discordant and not-Classical-or-classic-rock) about the time Quake came out.

    Yes, I measure time frames and life signposts based on video games.

  4. 5

    Ronnie James Dio was fucking metal! Without him there’d be no Metallica (pre-Black Album, of course; their discography following that is all shit), Slayer, Pantera, Tool, Opeth, Strapping Young Lad, In Flames, Dethklok, or any of the other great bands that make Metal the best music out there!

    (Well, okay – maybe I’m overstating that a bit, but nobody likes to see musical pioneers of their favorite style dying.)

    He’s now reigning in Hell with Dimebag Darrel, Cliff Burton, Per Yngve Ohlin, and the rest of the Metal Masters that have shed this mortal shell!

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