Jobie Reviews Music 156: Sacred Heart (album) by Dio. Requested by ActuallyApollo.

Sacred Heart is a 1985 heavy metal album by the band Dio. It is 9 tracks long, encompassing 38 minutes and 35 seconds of music. The album is the band’s third album, which saw the band taking an entirely new direction in its musical style. This change in style is what signaled many fans and non-fans to absolutely despise its very existence, with AllMusic’s review, in particular, being harsh on its composition. I find this negative praise to be unwarranted, as the album is not as terrible as some critics might have you believe.

The album’s fairly nice instrumentation, along with its well-delivered vocals, make for a nice listening experience in general. Its lyrical content is sometimes self-referential in nature (“King of Rock and Roll”), while other times being overtly heavy metal. Still, the album’s content is a very accessible listen for anyone who’s seeking to take a dive into Dio’s music. Its choruses are clearly meant to be catchy, with heavy metal melodies backing up the genre-typical lyrics.

The album even dips its feet into pop-metal with the single “Hungry for Heaven”, offering up an interesting listening experience which contrasts with the other 8 tracks on the heavy metal focused album. It adds a bit of variety to the somewhat forgettable melodies that Dio delivers, standing out from other tracks which make use of similar tactics in its instrumentation.

It is important to note that, though crowd cheering and applause can be heard throughout the track “King of Rock and Roll”, the album is not a live album. The “live audience” sounds were dubbed over the song after its production (which is why the other 8 tracks do not contain any live audience audio).

My favorite tracks from this album are “King of Rock and Roll”, “Sacred Heart”, “Just Another Day”, and “Shoot Shoot”.

Overall, while some may call Sacred Heart a disappointing effort from the heavy metal band, I believe that this album is a fairly worthwhile listen. While not the most impressive heavy metal album by any means, it still manages to deliver tracks which are well-produced and enjoyable to listen to. In short, the album has nothing to marvel at, but also nothing to complain about either.

Overall rating:

8/10

LINK TO ALBUM:

https://open.spotify.com/album/5PONHX8ojbwfRkBfukQ8aI