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Dio > Intermission > Reviews
Dio - Intermission

A lull in the midst of the feature performance. - 78%

hells_unicorn, February 27th, 2020
Written based on this version: 1990, CD, Vertigo Records

For better or worse, the mid 80s was the zenith of Dio's popularity as a force in the metal mainstream, achieved largely due to a more polished blend of past influences that first took shape on their sophomore outing The Last In Line and reached its full form with 1985's Sacred Heart. The sound of the aforementioned 3rd studio album was of a much lighter and streamlined character when compared to any past or subsequent studio outing by Ronnie and company, drawing heavy comparisons to the keyboard-steeped AOR sound that had become ascendant throughout the L.A. scene and had cross-pollinated with much of rest of the heavy metal world. The resulting world tour would feature one of the most extravagant stage shows ever conceived, selling out massive venues and solidifying Dio as one of the premier acts of the American metal scene. But naturally with a rise to great heights can come a great fall, and in their particular case, this would be the unceremonious exodus of original guitarist Vivian Campbell.

To say that Vivian had a massive number of loyalists within Dio's fan base would be an understatement, largely due to his highly unique blend of agitated shred guitar gymnastics and busy, yet traditionally rooted riffing. Even if Ronnie had opted to replace him with Yngwie Malmsteen, Brad Gillis, or one of any number of prominent virtuoso players featured on the recently released Hear 'N' Aid song, this crowd would have refused to accept the outcome. Nevertheless, the choice of Craig Goldy of Giuffria, arguably one of the lightest acts of the entire glam rock scene, was a curious one that must have confounded even Dio's most ardent supporters going back to the days of Rainbow. Given that Vivian's departure occurred in the midst of a tour that was seeing record turnout, a demonstration of Goldy's abilities was naturally in order to calm the fears of any doubters, and it came in the form of a new studio song accompanying a selection of live offerings from the first half of the Sacred Heart tour with Campbell still in the band.

Although the resulting EP dubbed Intermission could be seen as a necessary way of easing fans into a substantial lineup change, its musical functionality is, at best, redundant. There are some unique nuanced in the performance of the live material relative to the Japan exclusive live video release Super Rock: Live In Japan, but an untrained ear could easily mistake these renditions for the ones found on said album, minus maybe a slightly lower audio quality. The usual flaws that persisted in Vivian's interpretation of Rainbow classics "Man On The Silver Mountain" and "Long Live Rock And Roll", namely the tempo being way too fast and his soloing coming off as a bit spastic (his one-dimensional air of agitated passion clashes with Blackmore's mellower original conception of these songs), which is mitigated somewhat by the songs being interwoven into a medley with "Rock 'N' Roll Children" and thus being shorter. For his part, Ronnie himself proves to be the key feature of these performances, engaging the audience with a barrage of cheers and ad lib shouts.

Ultimately, the main draw of this release is the exclusive studio song "Time To Burn", which features newcomer Craig Goldy assuming Vivian's role and showcasing why he's ultimately the better of the two. While the song itself is a fairly methodical and mid-paced anthem after the mold of most of the material found on Sacred Heart, it showcases a degree of poise and idiomatic soloing that is far more nuanced, and also more engaging. While Campbell would only occasionally veer into melodically consonant territory during his frenetic solos, Goldy tells stories with his lead work that builds off existing melodic material within the song and while no less technically impressive than Vivian's handiwork, proves to be far more memorable. It's a massive silver-lining on what is otherwise a middle of the road collection of live performances, to the point where this studio respite between both legs of the Sacred Heart tour could be treated as the Time To Burn single with an extended b-side. It's more a historical curiosity for collectors than anything else, and apart from the song in question, is not really an essential part of Dio's highly consistent catalog.

Damnit, this wasn't worth my money. - 43%

Corimngul, January 5th, 2005

While having quite a cool cover, Intermission stands out as the most boring release Dio have ever done. It stands out as one of the most boring albums in my collection. Five live tracks, whereof one medley, performed well but recorded with more than lacking production and sound quality. While showing the Dio band’s contact with the crowd, these tracks also show some unnecessary wankery – both with guitar and voicewise. It’s actually more wanking than you’ll find on an average live album. It was probably quite cool when he did it at the show, but here, on a recording it just turns out boring. You very seldom hear the crowd but not because they weren’t enthusiastic, no because of the bad production.

Time To Burn, the only new track, is a weak one. It sounds more rock than anything else. It’s no pumping, it just plays from one end to another and you don’t notice it was there. Nothing catchy, no incredible musicianship, no killer vocals… The song doesn’t even progress – it’s just plain boring. Then the medley kicks off and Claude Schnell, the keyboardist (also on Sacred Heart and Dream Evil) looses it. His keyboards don’t sound and when they do it’s not right either. He gets it back later, but putting such sloppy performances on a live release is kind of lame. All in all this EP is bad, unnecessary, and no one except a diehard Dio-fan will like it. Saying that, I am one myself and I dislike it. And the fact that an original pressing from 1986 could await me in the year of 2004, completely new at a major record dealer reveals everything. Buy the full-lengths instead.

Intermission indeed... - 70%

Sinner, December 23rd, 2002

A strange album - too short to be full length and too long to be an Ep, consisting of 5 live songs, which are admittedly very well done and prove that Live, Dio was a force to be reckoned with and one new studio track which falls a bit short and is rather unspectacular when compared to any of the previous albums.

Not really a very convincing release (hell, they could have made it a full length album and put on another 5 or 6 live-tracks, which WOULD have been the right thing to do during this period in Dio's carreer) - but quite okay as it stands but more suited to collectors or die-hard fans than the "casual" Metal fan.