Dio - We Rock

Greetings, and welcome to a special article here on Tune Of The Day.
It is the first in a short series that is not written by Stones or Thetania.
It is the first one written by Chief Rebel Angel.
I usually ramble on a lot at my own blog Metal!, but some time ago an opportunity opened up.
The opportunity to give the guys at Tune Of The Day a bit of vacation, and just do a take over for some days.
After thinking long and hard (read: having a beer and listening to some great music, if I recall correctly it was the exceptional NECROPHOBIC album "Hrimthursum" that abused my stereo at the time) it was a done deal.
After all, Tune Of The Day is one of the best music blogs out there, and I am extremely impressed by the fact that the guys have been able to keep it up for such a long time, as well as constantly finding new and interesting music. Being able to let Stones and Thetania have some well-deserved time off is something I gladly contribute to.

So.
Immediately after accepting, I started thinking (read: having a beer and a brain melt down) on the fact that this is a legacy and a task not to be taken lightly.
How do one proceed with such a job?
Keeping to the concept, with a new song every day, a lot of information regarding the artists and bands as well as trying to time the article to some event with that video?
No. Of course, there will be videos, but instead I decided to do it another way.
My Way, as Frankie-boy would have said.

The Rebel Angel Ramblings will focus on story telling, and the music videos will be connected to these stories and, well, hmm... ramblings.
So, after a long planning (read: having yet another a beer and fiddling around with the notes function in my iPhone) I decided that best way to kick off such a thing is to tell a story of Stones (well, and Thetania as well, obviously).
Presentation of the Rebel Angel will be done another day (if you are curious, if not), and instead I will tell you how we came to meet In Real Life.

It all began one sunny day in august, when the eather in my town Tyresö was some 500 degrees Fahrenheit and all the girls was wearing short skirts.... no. Actually, I can't really remember when it all began, but in some weird way it was Stones and Thetania who found me.
Or, rather, they found my blog. Metal!.
They started commenting, and since my blog is quite a small one, there were more or less the only ones who did. I'd been a reader of Tune Of The Day for just a short time, and when they started commenting I saw my chances: they were going to be part of a series of interviews called "Blog In Focus".
The article was published on Metal! in March 2010 (it's all in swedish, so if you are nurishing thoughts about reading it, learn the language of heroes or use Google Translate!), but the best thing was actually the contacts in between the questioning and the publishing.
The world is a small place, and it turned out that:
a) the Tune Of The Day-characters lives in Tyresö. So do I. What are the odds?!
b) they are "northerners" in exile. As am I.

To good to be true, of course, and it did not take long for us to start talking and actually meet.
And we met again, as the first one was quite nice.
Before long, I recruited Stones to Werock.se, as well as to the small community that meets every january to play heavy metal and drink beer.
Sometime during that period, the guys came to one of my birthdays.
Had some coffee, cake and a laugh, and they gave me a gift that turned out to be invaluable.
It was a poster of Dio, signed by the band during what was to be the little rock'n'roll-legends last visit to Sweden.

Let me just reveal i a little short piece of information on my personal views.
My all time favourite top 5 records are (in chronological order):
BLACK SABBATH "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"
DIO "The Last In Line"
QUEENSRYCHE "Operation: Mindcrime"
PARADISE LOST "Draconian Times"
OPETH "Ghost Reveries"

Adding to that, I would probably name Ronnie James Dio as my all time favourite singer if I was required to name just one (perhaps in stromg competition with a certain David Coverdale...).
In short: that gift was such a tremendous thing for me, and I can probably never repay them.
The picture above could also have been taken from the ongoing series "Record Madness", a collaboration between Tune Of The Day and Metal!, so in fact I have done quite the opposite... I've dragged them into more work online!

Over the years, Stones and Thetania have become good friends to me. We've watched shows together (MESHUGGAH at Debaser Medis stands out as the best one, I have to say, that was one magic evening), and we run into each other every once in a while.
It should be more though.
I should meet them more, especially as circumstances has placed us within Tyresö.
The reason I should meet them more is simple: they are good people, and they rock.

With that in mind, the first song for the Rebel Angel Ramblings comes quite natural.
It simply has to be DIO "We Rock".
It is the only way to salute Stones, Thetania and Tune Of The Day - as well as the perfect way to kick off this series of incoherent mumbo-jumbo.




This clip is taken live, from The Spectrum in Philadelphia, 1984.
Besides Ronnie himself, the band consists of Jimmy Bain (bass), Vinny Appice (drums) and Vivian Campbell (guitar), and I think that Ronnies voice was at his prime around 78-85, even if he kept going strong all the way to the end.

We Rock!

More info @

The Rebel Angel Ramblings Blog
Official Dio Web

Listen to ”Dio - We Rock" on Spotify here!

Follow tuneoftheday.blogspot.com on Spotify here!