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HISTORICAL FACTS: 4 - The Untold Story

“When it comes to many of the classics, I don’t even know what they’re about!” How Mikael Åkerfeldt’s policy of not taking advice led Opeth to Pale Communion

Inspired by sharing records with Steven Wilson, he took a more melodic approach, added a vague title that just sounded cool, and forged them into a “journey through life that starts pretty good and ends shit”

Louder

"A new heavy metal classic for the ages": The song Ronnie James Dio called one of the "proudest things he'd ever done"

Begun by Dio when he was fronting Black Sabbath, it transformed his career and became one of the classic metal tracks of the 80s

Metal Hammer

"I was left standing alone in the dark,trying to match up to these iconicsingers that had gone before": The chaotic tale of Black Sabbath's Tony Martin era

Dio was out, Gillan was gone, Geezer had given up, and Ozzy had declared war. Light came in the shape of Tony Martin, and the next chapter in Black Sabbath's story

Metal Hammer

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"Even now, I have no idea how we got Vincent Price or Twiggy": The night Roger Glover assembled three Deep Purple singers and a cast of stars for a performance based on an old children’s poem

When Roger Glover was asked to soundtrack a film based on a poem by a 19th century botanist, little did he know that soon it would become a one-off live extravaganza

Louder

"Tony Iommi should have dropped the name and called the band something else": Black Sabbath's least-loved album re-examined, four decades on

What happened when Tony Iommi brought two familiar faces back on board for Forbidden, an album produced by an extremely unexpected choice

Louder

"I insist upon being great. You don’t always reach that pinnacle, but I insist upon it": The A-Z of Ronnie James Dio

In his decades fronting Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio and more, the little man with the huge voice made a great many friends – and more than a few enemies

Metal Hammer

“There’s the Ozzy thing and the Ronnie thing, and then there’s this”: Black Sabbath’s “lost era” didn’t have Ozzy Osbourne or Ronnie James Dio – but it featured some of Tony Iommi’s best guitar playing

The Anno Domini 1989-1995 box set highlights the metal progenitor’s striking development as a soloist and master of crushing riffs

Guitar World

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"An unapologetic celebration of what he does best": Sebastian Bach appears ageless on the bombastic and sonically monstrous Child Within The Man

An impressively explosive return from one of metal's biggest fans, Sebastian Bach

Louder

“Ronnie gave me great advice about building a guitar solo... left to my own devices, it would have been a case of how many notes I could fit in!”: Vivian Campbell looks back on the 1984 Dio classic The Last In Line

How do you follow Holy Diver? That was the question facing Ronnie James Dio and his young band. The answer: is you double down on the metal anthems and record a stone cold classic

Guitar World

ronnie james dio history black sabbath rainbow

Metal Hammer

“We wore silly hats, but in those days, you did silly things”: Listen to the doo-wop bands Ronnie James Dio sang in before becoming a metal star with Black Sabbath and Rainbow

Before Rainbow, Black Sabbath and Dio, one of heavy metal’s most powerful voices sang in skiffle and doo-wop groups. This is what they sounded like…

Metal Hammer

“Anyone with an alternate viewpoint is liable to get burned at the stake”: Queensryche made an 80s metal classic with Operation: Mindcrime. Nearly 20 years later, they tried to match it with a sequel

The sequel to Queensryche’s Operation: Mindcrime was released in the US on April 4, 2006. This is how they made a follow up to a landmark album

Louder

"Everybody wanted to get in on the action. I wasn't letting that happen": Dio's first platinum album could have been very different

Unencumbered by the curse of the second album, The Last In Line became one of the most momentous metal albums of the 80s

Metal Hammer

New vocalists lasted five minutes and founder members quit amid the chaos: 1984 was an awful year for Black Sabbath, and by its end they were almost obliterated

Molotov cocktails and member mayhem: The chaotic story of Black Sabbabth's worst year

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Black Sabbath announce details of long-awaited Tony Martin era box set and The Eternal Idol is nowhere to be seen

The new set will contain remastered versions of Headless Cross, Tyr and Cross Purposes, plus a new Tony Iommi mix of Forbidden

Metal Hammer

“What’s more satanic than a demon throwing a priest into the water, chained?!” Watch Jack Black react to classic album covers by Dio, Iron Maiden, Manowar and more

Watch Tenacious D singer, Hollywood star and ultimate metalhead Jack Black give his thoughts on artworks from some of our genre’s greatest legends

Metal Hammer

Listen to Black Sabbath cover Deep Purple’s Smoke On The Water, with Ian Gillan on vocals

During the 1983 Born Again tour, Black Sabbath acknowledged new singer Ian Gillan’s former band by performing Deep Purple’s signature song

Louder

"We should have been writing our own songs, but it was much better to listen to Abba": Ritchie Blackmore has named his favourite band of all time

Ritchie Blackmore opens up during a 40-minute online Q&A filmed at home in Long Island

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“I have fond memories of sitting on Lemmy‘s lap after he’d come offstage, with his hair in a white towel turban”: Rob Halford says Judas Priest‘s new album has a tribute to Lemmy and Ronnie James Dio

New Judas Priest song Giants In The Sky from upcoming album Invincible Shield pays tribute to Lemmy, Ronnie James Dio and other great rock icons

Metal Hammer

"But oh my God, he's just awesome. Power, resonance, tone... fabulous": Bruce Dickinson names some of his favourite singers

Iron Maiden man Bruce Dickinson talks about his favourite vocalists in the lead-up to the release of new solo album The Mandrake Project

Metal Hammer

10 heavy metal solo careers that fell completely flat

Not everyone can be Ozzy Osbourne or Ronnie James Dio…

Metal Hammer

"It was a very magical time. The right people came together at the right moment": Ronnie James Dio's track-by-track guide to Dio's classic Holy Diver

Many believed Ronnie James Dio was finished when he quit Black Sabbath, but he proved the doubters wrong with an all-time classic

Louder

In 1979, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow began making their fourth album, Down To Earth. Cue pranks, tantrums, line-up changes, bad vibes and really bad hair days

"I didn’t look like them and I wasn't into their music" - Graham Bonnet on being offered the job of Rainbow singer

Metal Hammer

"Yes, we all want to bang our heads at Christmas, but we also want to sit down with a cup of tea and a mince pie and have a bit of a chillout": Rob Halford's 8 favourite Christmas songs

Metal God Rob Halford salutes the most wonderful time of the year, as he selects his eight favourite Christmas songs

Metal Hammer

"As metal staggered to its feet and limped out of the 80s, it was on the cusp of becoming stronger than ever before": How heavy metal got its mojo back

Big hair and bad spandex almost killed any credibility metal had in the 1980s. But metal not only survived, it also came back bigger and stronger than ever

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