 
When Ronnie James Dio died of metastasized stomach
cancer on the 16th May 2010 the rock world was
in mourning as Ronnie James Dio was one of the
best rock vocalist and also such a friendly guy
who made so many fans and friends over the years
whilst fronting the likes of Elf, Rainbow, Black
Sabbath, Dio, Heaven And Hell and various other
projects he worked on over the years.
Since the passing of Ronnie James Dio his wife
and long term manager Wendy Dio has gone on to
create the Ronnie James Dio stand up and shout
cancer fund which is a non-profit charitable fund
formed in honour of Ronnie James Dio which is
there to support cancer prevention research and
also raise awareness and educate the public on
the importation on early detection of cancer,
the fund has already gone on to raise $80,000
and now they are hoping to raise even more money
for the cause with the release of the long awaited
Ronnie James Dio tribute album ‘This Is
Your Life’.
‘This Is Your Life’ is a massive superstar
mash up of an album it features 13 classic Ronnie
James Dio songs spanning right throughout his
career and it features the likes of Anthrax, Corey
Taylor, Halestorm, Tenacious D, Killswitch Engage,
Metallica and many other artists coming together
to cover the songs of Ronnie James Dio.
The album is set to be released on the 1st April
and if the cause of the album, the line up, the
stunning artwork and quality songs are anything
to go by then the album is going to raise a lot
of money for cancer research as it is the biggest
superstar album since Roadrunner Records released
‘Roadrunner United’ back in 2005 to
celebrate 25 years of the record label.
The album kicks off with Anthrax making some serious
noise to ‘Neon Knights’, this is quickly
followed up by Tenacious D sounding as serious
as you will ever hear them as they cover the slow
paced ‘The Last In Line’ where Jack
Black really give’s it his all with one
of the best vocal performances he has ever put
on.
Adrenaline Mob covers the classic Black Sabbath
song ‘Mob Rules’ which is only right
considering their name, the cover of ‘Rainbow
In The Dark’ features a proper all star
line up as the likes of Corey Taylor, Roy Mayorga,
Satchel, Christian Martucci and Jason Christopher
all team up for a massive cover of the well loved
Rainbow song.
One of the most stand out moment on the album
is when Halestorm cover ‘Straight Through
The Heart’ and this is mainly due to Lzzy
Hale’s big in your face confident vocals
which sound so different from those of Ronnie
James Dio, the song remains true to the original
Dio song but with that magical twist which Halestorm
always manage to add to their cover songs and
let’s face it they are the masters of covering
songs having already released two diverse sounding
cover EP’s.
However the most epic moment on the album is the
‘Ronnie Rising Medley’ which features
Metallica mash 4 classic Rainbow songs together
because they found it tough just picking one tracks
and Metallica are also all about long tracks and
this is just that clocking up just over the 9minute
mark, the medley features the likes of ‘A
Light In The Black’, ‘Tarot Woman’,
‘Stargazer’ and ‘Kill The King’
and it is truly amazing hearing the energy and
power of Metallica smashing through these songs.
The album comes to a close with the title tracks
‘This Is Your Life’ preformed by Ronnie
James Dio, the song was originally released on
the Dio album ‘Angry Machines’ back
in 1996 and the song is such a solid moving performance
and is such an fitting end to such a star studded
worthwhile album, the song is so laid back that
it features Scott Warren on piano and Dio literally
singing his heart out and reminding us exactly
what a great front man he was.
The release of ‘This Is Your Life’
is just under a month away now and if you want
to support such an important cause and listen
to some classic Dio songs in ways that you have
never heard them before with some of your favourite
musicians in toe then you really need to pre order
the album now as never has an album had such a
meaningful purpose as ‘This Is Your Life’
does.
5/5
Review by Trigger
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