So far I bought the Ratt, Dokken, Motley Crue and the Dio box set both CD and vinyl. These rule

Strange Highways was included in a box set called A Decade Of Dio, which was from Holy Driver to Strange Highways. Tenacious D was in the video to Push. Thanks for doing this, Phil. Will definitely be getting this

Dio had such a strong conviction in his thematic structures for each record. I streamed all the later albums. Yes, Magica takes awhile but worth the effort. I want this set. I always miss him but he left a great legacy.

@interestingtimes182

5 ай бұрын

Magika was my first introduction to Dio. I absolutely love it

I've never understood the hate for "Angry Machines". Did people want a metal album from Dio or not?

@NowSpinningMagazine

10 ай бұрын

Good point! It’s certainly a metal Album! Phil :)

@seangerant653

10 ай бұрын

yes !!.........Double Monday.........Hunter Of The Heart.........Dying In America.......Instiutional Man.....God Hates Heavy Metal.......great stuff on there !!

@benedictdonald4338

2 ай бұрын

Indeed. Great album and a perfect complement to “strange Highways” and “Dehumanizer”.

Looks like a great collection.Thanks for the in-depth review. "Killing The Dragon" is the best of the bunch. Saw him live on this tour and it was amazing. Take care! 🤘

Strange Highways was included in a box set called A Decade Of Dio

I had the pleasure of seeing the Magica tour, thankfully he played the entire album live. Personally and I usually get a lots of heat from metal fans when I tell them from Strange Highways and on were my preferred Dio albums, now don't get me wrong I love the classic ones he did but I somehow finds these much better. I will be definitely adding both box sets to my collection.

@NowSpinningMagazine

10 ай бұрын

I am similar and prefer this period of his career! Phil :)

@alnka1974

10 ай бұрын

@@NowSpinningMagazine Phil he perfected his music as he was getting older, like wine...the older it gets; the better it taste. thanks for dropping a reply.

CD set looks tempting. I’ll think about it, great video

A fittingly classy looking box set for one of the all time greats! Great video Phil!

There's a decade of Dio vinyl Boxset from 1983 to 1993 which includes strange highways.

@NowSpinningMagazine

10 ай бұрын

Thank you for info - I did not know that - Phil :)

Awesome review! I could listen to you for hours. Great interviewer as well. Just finished listening to your podcast interview of Adam Wakeman. You rock, brother! 🤘

@NowSpinningMagazine

2 ай бұрын

Thank you 🙏

All of these albums are fantastic except for “Magica” which is just “ok”. His last two solo albums were especially strong.

The strange highway album is in the first vinyl box set that came out few years ago, it has the first 6 albums and this has the last 4 albums

Will order cd version next month birthday present for me yeah

I order the CD box but i still not got it. They are sold out but i still want it when i see your`s so nice box set thanks man Long Live DIO I Have Angry machine dobbel Cd. CD Live from the tour 1997

Thanks for the box opening. All my stuff has been in storage for going on 3 years. So when I got the Vinyl+CD box sets... I didn't even open them before I put them in storage. Long Live the Magic & Music of Ronnie James Dio!

I was going to buy the CD set, then I realized that I already own "Angry Machines", "Magica", "Killing The Dragon", and "Master Of The Moon" as a 2CD deluxe package released by BMG in 2019. I also own "Holy Diver Live" as a 2CD deluxe package, once again released by BMG in 2020.

Beatiful

Those Dio box sets look awesome. I enjoy Dio very much, but only have Holy Diver & The Last In Line on CD. Great video, Phil.

I hope they rerelease the first volume on vinyl. This set looks great. Definitely buying.

Thanks Phil !

Great stuff, thanks for showing. There is some great playing, writing, production etc. (Simon Wright kicks arse, Vinny is also great) and Ronnie is always spectacular. I did attend what was his last performance in Los Angeles, with Heaven and Hell (great show), It is still such a shock that he is gone, but he left us with some fantastic music..."long live R.J.DIO" \m/

Great review! Agreed, Magica n Killing the Dragon very good pieces from RJD not to be missed!

THANKS , great youtube channel , THE Best 💥 RONNIE JAMES DiO 🤘

Nice review Phil, very interested in this set, probably go for the CD box as I have the first box on CD!

I would hsve bought the cd box set but I already bought the 2 CD deluxe Editions of these that came out a few years ago.

the mighty DIO tho ! my collection is made up of a lovely mini LP Japanese box-set......

BMG puts out really cool Boxsets

I have them all with the lenticular covers. Don’t think I need these. But maybe 😂

Definitely going to be getting these..got to wait until payday though

Great box set. Pity about not including Strange Highways. The thing about Strange Highways is , its one of my top 3 Dio albums The other 2 being Holy Diver and Dream Evil.

Hi Phil .. I don’t have any musical knowledge of Dio ..but I am thinking of moving onto his term with Sabbath….seems like a good step for me to sample what his about .. enjoy your box sets .. I’m currently over the moon with my Who’s next .. Life House set … it’s definitely keeping me occupied….

@NowSpinningMagazine

10 ай бұрын

HI Dean, that is a good place to start as well as Rainbow Rising. The Who's Next Box Set looks amazing, unfortunately I don't have the budget to get it at the moment. Phil

Great video as always Phil. It’s a shame the Japanese bonus tracks aren’t there. ‘Annica’ is a gem of a tune. Is ‘Guilty’ from ‘Killing The Dragon’ still misspelled as ‘Guitly’ like the previous re-release? Poor quality control from BMG. I’ll happily stick with my Spitfire original. And you can add me to the list of fan’s preferring this era of the great man’s work. 🤘

Great stuff Phil, i got these when they were reissued a few years ago on vinyl so i don't think i'll be getting it, but i think i need to go back and listen to Magica again as if i'm honest it didn't connect with me at the time

Both Strange Highways and Angry Machines were fine albums and logical steps after Dio's second tenure with Sabbath with the mighty Dehumanizer. Though was gutted when he delivered Killing The Dragon instead of Magica part II (all hail the Lord Of The Last Day!), but all was forgiven once hit play, Killing The Dragon was SO GOOD! Thanks for the concise review fantastic looking box sets and Cheers from DownUnder!

None of these is going to stand up to Holy Diver or The Last In Line, but Magica, Killing the Dragon and Master of the Moon are all really good albums! Maybe you haters should give them another shot, nice and LOUD!!!

Strange highways was on warners and poly gram all the first 6 Dio were

I was interested in what Dio was about, I prefer to have bonus tracks and stuff.

What is this? They should have made a complete albums box set. I just bought these albums again when they released them on media book with the bonus tracks. Why did they need to release this? Silly. I also bought the Holy Diver, Last in Line, Sacred Heart and Dream Evil Deluxe editions and the other live Dio media books and the Rainbow + Black Sabbath deluxe editions as well on cd. I think I have enough.

Killing the Dragon is a really good album start to finish. I have a version of it with two bonus live tracks where Ronnie is backed by Deep Purple on Rainbow in the Dark and Fever Dreams, which is pretty cool. There are some really good stand out tracks on Magica, the aforementioned Fever Dreams and Challis. But I find Master of the Moon to be a bit plodding and not the best ending to the Dio catalogue. While I have to confess, I've never actually owned Angry Machines ...

Great video, again. There's really too much to say about the latter half of Dio's "solo" career to be put into 15 minutes. IMHO not his best singing and writing but nevertheless always at least interesting. Much has been said about Dio's output increasingly becoming a plod-fest. But his penultimate album Killing the Dragon contains in fact a lot of up-tempo tracks. I got some of the BMG double CD special editions, or whatever they called them, of just a few years ago. Of these Angry Machines sounded great but I was miffed at the lack of attention to detail compiling the live "bonus" CD: they had screwed up the order of the tracks resulting in one getting to hear the end of Man on the Silver Mountain before the first half of that song.

Hello Phil … Killing the dragon is the star here … It’s my opinion … back to the 80’s … like Vivian Campbell, Doug Aldrich is a monster guitar player … that’s the difference for me with the other guys … I mean Craig Goldy or Tracy G … a salute from Argentina Phil …

@NowSpinningMagazine

10 ай бұрын

I agree, Killing The Dragon is a killer album.

nice presentation! Killing the Dragon is a killer!!! it's a shame they didn't add two tracks where Dio sang with DP as on the original tour version of that cd. Any sign of remastering or it's simple reissue / cash in thing on cds? Vinyl - I guess they simply transferred digital versions on vinyl since you didn't notice the difference in sound.

@NowSpinningMagazine

10 ай бұрын

On the vinyl albums it states - Master of The Moon, Angry Machines, Magica Remastered by Wyn Davis 2019. Killing The Dragon is Mastered by Eddy Schreyer

Hi Phil, I agree these are for the people who have skipped these albums up to this point. I have the original CDs of these, and then bought the digibooks (which actually came out in 2020). The digibook editions (also on LP) were extended in 2021 with the live albums Evil or Divine (Killing the Dragon tour) and Holy Diver Live (from the later part of the Master of the Moon tour, with Doug Aldrich back on guitar temporarily). I like all these albums a lot, and in particular, Master of the Moon is really, really good once you give it time to sink in. About the Tracy G era, I've learned to appreciate it. Strange Highways is like Dehumanizer part 2, and Angry Machines is the final part of the trilogy of that sound, the weakest link, but still decent. Live, the band really sounded heavy at this time. It makes the big keyboards of the Sacred Heart/Dream Evil sound very dated. With Tracy G, the Dio band sounded like Black Sabbath playing Dio solo material. For those who say Tracy couldn't play Vivian Campbell parts, well, Iommi couldn't have either. Beyond the four albums presented here, there's some good radio broadcasts from these tours available now on CD, if you look around a little.

@NowSpinningMagazine

10 ай бұрын

Thank you for your overview and the extra info - Phil :)

Hi Phil, could you do a episode of the pros and cons of remasters? I understand remastering of albums that were recorded over 30 years ago on analog is a welcoming thing but is it really necessary to remaster digitally recorded albums that have been released in the last 20 years?

@NowSpinningMagazine

10 ай бұрын

I would say it isn’t necessary on a lot of more recent albums. I will had this as a subject for a future video. Phil

I've already bought the bmg reissues of these albums that released a few years ago and i have the reissue of strange highways. Otherwise i would've gotten this

Magica and Killing the Dragon are the best albums here. I think Dio's voice dropped off a bit for Masters of the Moon and the songs were'nt quite as good.

If you're into vinyl then the vinyl box set is probably a nice collector's item. But Amazon asking £36 for a 4 CD box set of re-released albums that don't appear to be remastered in any way and only contain one bonus track is a bit of a rip off - whilst I am a big fan of Dio's work and saw him live on several occasions, these final four albums really aren't that great anyway. Clearly the effort was put into the vinyl albums but the CDs seem a bit of a "lazy afterthought" - maybe for £20 I would be interested in them, I will watch Amazon's prices going forward.

@NowSpinningMagazine

10 ай бұрын

Hi Terry, I disagree. In the video I go through both formats and the CD box sets are following a pattern laid down by the previous Motley Crue, Dokken, Ratt. Skid Row Sets. The CDs each come with booklets ands full lyrics where as the vinyl albums don't. Both sets are limited so I imagine that is 2,500 - 5,000 worldwide. For me apart from Strange Highways from this period ( which is not included) I don't have any of these. Many of these albums are out of print and so this is good way of picking them up depending on which format you prefer. The new Alice Cooper CD is £18, the new Lifesigns Live CD is £25. Personally this CD box set is good for £35 but I expect is will drop to around £30 although it may just sell out like the others in this series.

@jerrygeorgopolis8015

10 ай бұрын

@jerrygeorgopolis8015 1 second ago In the U.S. Amazon, the cd tracks listed are mostly remastered, and the 4cd set going for $44.99 U.S. dollars ! All the best....

@terrydaktyllus1320

10 ай бұрын

@@jerrygeorgopolis8015 Thanks for the clarification, there is no mention of remastering on the Amazon UK site. Having said that, I'll take the risk and wait to see if they come in at a lower price. I am not really a fan of Motley Crue, Ratt, Dokken or Skid Row so really don't care about having missed their box sets - "US hair metal" has never been my thing anyway.

@jerrygeorgopolis8015

10 ай бұрын

@@terrydaktyllus1320 Here is a bit of Amazon U.S. detail that's available here: Disc: 1- 1 Discovery (2019 - Remaster) :Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ BMG Rights Management (US) LLC Original Release Date ‏ : ‎ 2023 Date First Available ‏ : ‎ August 4, 2023 Label ‏ : ‎ BMG Rights Management (US) LLC ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CDNJJLQV Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 4

@terrydaktyllus1320

10 ай бұрын

@@independenceltd. My friend, you like what you like and I like what I like - neither of us can like everything. I don't feel that I owe you any other explanation or justification than that, but the context to my response is that Phil attempted to justify the price of the Dio box set by explaining that others in the "series" are of a similar price, to which my response was "Yes, but I don't care about about the hair metal bands (Dokken, Ratt, Motley Crue and Skid Row) in the series up to this point anyway". If these are bands that you enjoy then good luck to you, go have some fun. But getting wound up over a complete stranger on the Internet who has different musical opinions to your own really is a bit silly and pointless - and ultimately is the real reason that you replied to me in that way. And, with respect, you instructing me how to write comments that meet your own "editorial standards" on a public messaging forum is not a good look on your part, and not advice I take from anyone on KZread anyway. Keep on rocking.

👏👏👏🍺🤘!!

No Tour program? Bummer,

I'd love to get this set, but the track listing exactly the same on vinyl as on CD, as well as the lack of lyrics on the vinyl ruins it for me. That's unfortunate, since I love the album artwork and the coloured vinyl. The CD doesn't have any special appeal like coloured vinyl. I would want this vinyl set but just can't see myself getting it due to those omissions.

2019 versions of those lp's were all gatefold and included lyrics

@NowSpinningMagazine

10 ай бұрын

Thank you for the extra info - Phil :)

shame it didn't come with any kind of a book

Another terrible cash in job by Wendy Dio, her team obviously took no real effort into this. Vinyl has no lyrics and those awful printed useless inner sleeves, plus the track listing isn't split into sides. The CD box is a little better, but add absolutely nothing new.

@piotrlangtvedt

10 ай бұрын

No bonus tracks as well.

@NowSpinningMagazine

10 ай бұрын

I would have liked the lyrics included in the vinyl albums and not splitting the tracks into album sides is disappointing. I think these sets are aimed at fans that missed out on this part of the great man’s career. I am certainly one of those and after buying Strange Highways just stopped. For me personally this set works well, musically Killing The Dragon and Magica are wonderful. If you already have these albums you are right there is nothing new to warrant buying them again. Phil

Some of these albums are bad and some are just ok...

@NowSpinningMagazine

10 ай бұрын

Respect your opinion and I’ll admit I struggled with Angry Machines but I loved Killing The Dragon and Magica - Phil

@franciskocher200

10 ай бұрын

@@NowSpinningMagazine 👍

Great content Mr Aston..you are a legit authority on this sort of topic.. respect Sir.🫡

@NowSpinningMagazine

7 ай бұрын

Thank you 🙏