Lock Up the Wolves

Dio's fifth studio album "Lock Up the Wolves" is a bit of a black sheep. As stated at the end of my "Dream Evil" review, the entire lineup of "Lock Up the Wolves" is different than all previous lineups, but even more so than that, bassist Teddy Cook and young guitarist Rowan Robertson have one off appearances here, and would never appear on another Dio release. Simon Wright joins them, and even though he only did this one album at the time, he'd be back to be Dio's permanent drummer later in his career. He does his job as a drummer, but besides a small few moments of brilliance here and there, he's not really better than your average drummer. Rowan Robertson is a fairly competent guitarist for his age and experience when he recorded for this album. He has some cool riffs here and there, but he also is trying to fill some pretty big shoes that came before him that he just might not have had the ability to do. When I first saw the keyboardist for this album years ago, I had to double take. Jens Johansson?! Yes! THE Jens Johanson who'd go on to show his true skill in Stratovarius. This is before he joined Strato, and quite honestly, he might as well not even be credited on the record because he barely does anything on it. Dio got maybe the greatest keyboardist ever...and he is used less on this album than Claude Schnell or even when he played keys himself on "Holy Diver." A true shame, but maybe Jens' legendary skill wasn't known yet.

Now, when everyone talks about Dio's solo material, almost everyone you meet says that "Angry Machines" is the 'bad' album. And while I certainly wouldn't call "Angry Machines" a standout album (we'll get there), it is WORLDS better than "Lock Up the Wolves" is. This record is by far the worse album Dio's voice graces in a full time capacity. "Lock Up the Wolves" is not a downright dreadful record, but it is so boring and passed its prime. "Lock Up the Wolves" is like room temperature milk. Everything about it was dated and stale the very moment it came out. This album is almost like Dio parodying himself. There is not one moment of brilliance or Dio magic on this entire album, yet the entire record sounds like he is rehashing his older albums. It sounds like Dio is rewriting his old songs and just changing little things here and there. However, every song sounds extremely fatigued, lifeless and soulless. If Dio ever just went through the motions to record a record for a paycheck, it was on "Lock Up the Wolves."

Never have I been so bored to tears listening to Ronnie James Dio's voice and music as whenever I go back to this record. "Why Are They Watching Me" is the absolute epitome of a filler track. And having a filler track on a 'filler' album is even worse. A stock and standard hard rock riff greets us and just goes through the motions from there. As mentioned, Dio is pretty much just mimicking verse riffs he has used in the past, and the chorus is abysmal. To say it's a stupid chorus would be an understatement. It's meaningless, has no emotion to it, and goes nowhere. The song is beyond forgettable in every regard. "Night Music" starts with an alt-rock sounding intro that Dio sounds incredibly out of place on. The verses are sappy, dull, and once again, just sound like a rehashing. Robertson's riffs on this particular song really sound more like a jam. It sounds like he's just kind of trying out different things behind Dio and hoping they stick. Once again, the chorus is purposeless and goes nowhere. It's not a climactic chorus that is a culmination of what the song has been building to. It is Dio going "Hey! I think these two words will be catchy if we sing them in this way." Not the worst track on the record, but another soulless and tired song.

"Hey Angel" is your expected 'single' that Dio always tries to throw in there. But we are an extremely long way from "Rainbow in the Dark." This is another example of Dio just taking two words, multi-tracking his vocals, and going "That's all it takes to make a good chorus, right?" Again, I'll point out that it's not satisfying, it's not the culmination of anything interesting before it, and it's not memorable. The riffs are also just your stereotypical chugging behind him. "Hey Angel" is boring, predictable, and easily one of the worst of the worst. It's another filler track desperate to be seen as a single. The title track is yet another unforgiveable mess. Dio has so many classic title tracks for fans to debate on. All four before this one have been extremely unique and memorable in their own right, and some of Dio's title tracks after this record are extremely underrated as well. But I can guarantee you when someone debates the best Dio title track, no one is going to throw "Lock Up the Wolves" into the conversation. Why? It's one of Dio's longest songs, yet it does nothing and goes nowhere. The over one minute intro doesn't add anything, and then the opening section that comes after it just flat out sucks. The band is playing a few notes before pausing and then continuing. When things like this are usually done, they're done to feel epic, powerful, or otherwise give a certain mood to a song. But the notes themselves aren't interesting, and the pauses are WAY longer than they should be. It's like the band tried to create anticipation, but the material just isn't good enough to make the listener care. Dio tries to create some emotion and passion with some cool screams after the chorus, but there's nothing that can save this overly long, repetitive, dull, rambling mess of a song.

"Born on the Sun" seems to be trying a little harder than a lot of the rest of the album, but still has nothing to show for itself. Once again, in every single sense, this is a standard Dio song that sounds like it's copying past tracks. The verses and the riff fit a little better together, and Dio is adding some intensity to the song to give it a little of the intended fire, but it's a little lacking. And then the chorus hits, and everything about it sounds like "The Last in Line." The actual riff itself, Dio's vocal melodies, and the beat behind them all sound like they were ripped directly off of his second title track. It's so blatant to me that sometimes I question if this was an intentional parody or not. The song had a few ideas here and there, but seemed hastily thrown together. The reason I mention the intentional parody is because the closing track "My Eyes" has very blatant and obvious references to some of Dio's past songs. References to "Falling Off the Edge of the World," "Man on the Silver Mountain," "Heaven and Hell," and "Stargazer" are all made clear and deliberate, as examples. Now, despite these cool references, the song, unfortunately is WAY too sappy and quite repetitive, so I can't call it a good song. In fact, every time I hear it, all it does is make me want to go back and listen to those other songs. Whenever I hear this song, after the line "Seen it from the eyes of a Stargazer" I always wish Cozy Powell's infamous drum intro from that song started playing and led into that instead of continuing on with the rest of "My Eyes." That's certainly not a good sign.

The one and only track I ever listen to off "Lock Up the Wolves" with any regularity at all is "Between Two Hearts." It really is close to the only redeemable piece of material on the whole record. That's really because Robertson comes up with a really catchy riff that is just smoothness personified. The riff is slick and cool and lays a really good foundation for Dio to sing on. The song actually progresses decently nicely through its runtime, and it has a good handle on what it's doing right, so it ends up being an okay track on a lackluster album. The opening track "Wild One" is the only other song on the album I'd really give a pass to. Once again, Robertson has a pretty cool riff. "Wild One" is very much a standard Dio opening track like I pointed out as being done to death, but creative riff work really makes this one stand out a bit more. Maybe I'd like this song less if it was on a better album, but on "Lock Up the Wolves" this song is definitely one of the best there is to offer. If I was FORCED to pick a third track I'd give a pass to, it'd be "Twisted" for having a solid chorus over a catchy riff, but that's only if you forced me.

To me, "Lock Up the Wolves" shows that Dio needed a break. He was clearly bankrupt of ideas at this point, and was getting desperate. I honestly think Dio just made this album because he needed to make a living, rather than releasing this album because he genuinely thought it was brilliantly made. Luckily for him, Sabbath came calling right around this time, and it would be just the jolt Dio needed to get him out of this funk he was in. Not only did rejoining Sabbath for "Dehumanizer" light some fire back under him, but I also think the anger he felt about that whole situation spilled over into his solo band for another few releases until he got his legs back under him. While the call from Sabbath might have been just what he needed to kickstart the 'second half' of his career, if you look at "Lock Up the Wolves" at the time it was released, it certainly feels like he was on his way down. Fortunately, this was a one time flop for Dio, and he'd be back strong as ever soon.