If there’s one thing our friend Carlos Ramirez loves to do, it’s compile a list which is almost guaranteed to tick people off; I mean, we love to make silly lists, too, but for reals, Carlos does one every fifteen minutes or so. He once showed me a list of the best lists of the best lists; that’s how much the man loves those things. He actually argues with his wife about who gets to do the grocery list. Now that’s passion, people.

Because we all suffered a horrible loss yesterday*, Carlos has now compiled a list of the “Top 10 Dio Songs” for Noisecreep. These are really just Dio songs – none of his work with Elf, Rainbow, Sabbath, or Other Sabbath (sorry, “Heaven and Hell”) to be had here – which should lessen the flame wars somewhat. Still, some of you will find plenty to get butt-hurt about, I’m sure.

Check out the list here, and then, LET THE NEEDLESS ARGUING BEGIN!!!

-AR

*Actually, three great loses – legendary manager Debbie Abono  and drummer Joe Markowski also passed away yesterday, although that news was overshadowed by word of Dio’s demise. Reader \m/Eluveitie\m/ e-mailed me today to bemoan the lack of justice in the world – “Yet Durst Lives???” Sad but true.

The rumors have been confirmed; Ronnie James Dio lost his battle with stomach cancer and passed away at 7:45am this morning. He was 67.

Rumors began circulating last night that Dio had passed, but his wife Wendy Dio shot them down late last night / early this morning with a statement saying “He is not doing good, but he is not dead.” Only a few hours later she posted the statement you see above at his official website RonnieJamesDio.com confirming his death. The death comes as a surprise to all of us as the announcement that he had stomach cancer came not even 6 months ago. Dio had planned to continue on with Heaven and Hell’s European Summer tour though the band recently canceled those dates; in retrospect, that could have been a sign that his condition had taken a sudden turn for the worse.

In Dio we lost an incredible man and singer whose influence on metal was undeniably profound. I don’t believe that it would be hyperbole to say that this is the biggest loss the metal world has ever experienced. Not much else to say here other than that this is incredibly upsetting news that will be felt for days, months and years to come by the worldwide metal community.

Please feel free to share your thoughts on Dio and his incredibly prolific metal career in the comments below and on Dio’s official Facebook page.

- Everyone at MetalSucks

…because if you do, I’d really like this Dio denim jacket. That would be fucking rad.

-GS

[Gary Suarez is like a rainbow in the dark. He usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]

Sure, Craig Goldy, you didn’t play guitar on Dio’s classic albums (Holy Diver, The Last In Line, Sacred Heart), and even decades later you remain in the shadow of Vivian Campbell. And yeah “I Could Have Been A Dreamer” doesn’t hold a candle to “Rainbow In The Dark”, but today is your birthday, Big Guy, and on behalf of all the MetalSucks maniacs I wish you a super duper day!

Don’t forget to send Craig some birthday tweets!

-GS

[Gary Suarez is a ward of the state. He usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]

I’ve been meaning to mention this for a week. But I can already tell it’s gonna be a slow news day, so now seems like a good time to bring it up.

The lovely ladies at Reign in Blonde discovered that McSweeney’s has has a list of Heavy Metal Board Games. They have also added a few suggestions of their own. Here are a few that tickled me:

• Whitesnakes and Ladders
• Motley Clue
• Twister Sister
• Black Scrabbleth
• Crytopoly
• Dio’s and Dragons

Check out the rest of the list here. And, of course, I’m dying to see if y’all can come with s’more.

And if you really are bored, don’t forget that actually is a Heavy Metal Fun Time Activity Book.

-AR

What I like about White Wizzard, Earache Records’ latest signees, is that there’s no bullshit involved in their music. These are dudes who lived and died by their Maiden, Priest and Dio records back in the day and without a doubt still jam these records all the time. Perhaps best of all, there is not an ounce of irony here; though the dudes certainly have a sense of humor and, methinks, would categorize their music as “fun,” don’t expect them to try to out-shred anyone like a certain band or to pull any ironic “we have 15 singers” crap like another certain band. White Wizzard just like their “classic, traditional metal” (their own self-categorization), therefore that is what the play. Quite well, I might add.

Take their video for “High Speed GTO,” posted below. It’s got wizards and witches, sorcerers, general bad-assery and a storyline you’d expect from a classic Dio video, not a metal video in 2009. But the video doesn’t have these things because they think “ha ha, the ’80s were funny, let’s make fun of them!” like most of the poser rehash bands of today. No, these dudes actually think (and rightly so!) “wouldn’t it be fucking awesome if we had a video with wizards and witches and sorcerers??! that’d be fucking bad-ass!!!” It’s a fine line, kiddies.

After the jump, check out a recent EPK video featuring interviews and live footage of the band, including ex-Overloaded guitarist Erik Kluiber who recently joined White Wizzard as their second guitarist. Erik’s a talented axeman that longtime MetalSucks Maniacs will remember as commenter “ERiK.” Expect a “mini-album” (whatever that is) called High Speed GTO from White Wizzard on July 13th in the entire world. hello, Earache, it’s called “the Internet!” in Europe, and a full-length later in the year.

Click to read more…

We’re just a few weeks away from the release of the 21st century’s first Sabbath album, The Devil You Know, which, kind of miraculously, will actually feature a line-up people give two shits about. Seriously, if you’d told me ten years ago there’d be a new Sabbath album in 2009, I would have shrugged and wondered who Iommi recruited this go-round. But, no, it’s Dio-Sabbath, it’s really coming out, and it’s going to be kick-ass.

So. 2 things:

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First Maynard, now this.

Look: I fucking love Vegas. I was there for New Year’s once and I think I had pretty much the best fucking night of my life.

But part of what’s so fun about that town is how friggin’ ridiculous everything is; it can’t be taken seriously at all, and if you try to take it seriously, you’ll probably just give yourself an aneurysm. As a place to go spend a couple of days drunk and act like a total dip shit, I think Las Vegas is just swell – but I think if I had to live in there, I’d kill myself.

Click to read more…

Exhibit A: During the two-day black metal festival “Nidarosian Black Mass” in Trondheim, Norway this past weekend, the band Celestial Bloodshed played their gig in stage costumes that had been brewing in a box with a deer corpse… for four months. They took their clothes — and the corpse — out of the box on the day of the gig, and used both on stage. Result? The bar next door who happened to be connected to the venue’s air conditioning system had to close for the night due to the stench of death. This information comes via MetalSucks reader Fritz who was kind enough to summarize this Norwegian newspaper article, so we’ll have to take his word for it. Is there any doubt why Norway is the metal capital of the world?

Exhibit B: This is kind of an old story, but newsworthy nonetheless: A Wisconsin man recently became so incensed by what he deemed to be a disrespectful karaoke performance of Dio’s song Holy Diver that he attacked the singer and a second man.

Exhibit C: Creed are rumoured to be reuniting and no one has offed Scott Stapp yet. What the fuck??? Get on that.

-VN

(Rolling Stone ballot filled out by James Hetfield of Metallica.)

I just finished reading the latest issue of Rolling Stone (#1066/11.27.08) which has a cover story entitled “The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.” Not surprisingly, the metal contingent representation is dismal. Oh sure, they tapped several genre luminaries to place their votes including Ian Astbury, Sebastian Bach, Alice Cooper, Chris Cornell, Ronnie James Dio, Sammy Hagar, James Hetfield, Tony Iommi, Maynard James Keenan, Geddy Lee, Peter Mensch (Q Prime Mgmt – Metallica, Queensryche), Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop, and Scott Weiland, but what about the actual list? How many metalheads (or at least “rockers”) made the final cut?

Here are the pathetic results:

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This video should need no explanation. We were hoping for a LeVar Burton cameo, but alas. [via Metal Injection]

-VN