by Ed RivadaviaAfter the warm reception accorded their debut, Dio decided to play it safe with their 1984 sophomore effort, The Last in Line -- with mixed results. The in-your-face energy of the band's debut is dulled by a sleeker production job, with generous keyboards from new member Claude Schnell. And Ronnie James Dio's once-amusing Dungeons and Dragons lyrics begin sounding disturbingly repetitive, with the words "rainbow," "fire," and "stone" seemingly present in every song. Cuts like "We Rock," "Breathless," and "I Speed at Night" go from good to grating surprisingly fast, and the seven-minute epic "Egypt (The Chains Are On)" inexplicably loses it's awesome main riff halfway through. The band score some points with the driving "Evil Eyes," the theatrical "One Night in the City," and the solid title track, but the intended hit single "Mystery" is simply horrible. Still, despite the obvious signs of decline, anyone who enThe first two albums from Dio are perfect additions to the metal genre of the 80's. Many releases over the years have followed, more or less sticking to the same formula with renewed vigor and quality in sound, and some of the material has been quality. But what sets apart the first two albums in my opinion, is consistency. Every track is a good one. 'The Last In Line' drudges a little more in tone on a few tracks more so than 'Holy Diver' ever does, but in keeping with the dark, fantasy doom laden subject matter that Ronnie James specialises in. Their are riffs aplenty here, 'We Rock' and 'I Speed At Night' fast in tempo, in keeping with the metal at the time, 'One Night In The City' and 'Eat Your Heart Out' on the hand are slower and fill in the gaps between nicely. 　　joyed Dio's debut will certainly find much to like here.