Sacred Heart
Dio
Sacred Heart is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Dio, released on August 12, 1985 on Warner Bros. Records in North America and Vertigo elsewhere. Recorded at Rumbo Recorders in Los Angeles and produced by Ronnie James Dio himself, the album features the same core lineup as the band's first two records: Ronnie James Dio on vocals, Vivian Campbell on guitar, Jimmy Bain on bass, Vinny Appice on drums, and Claude Schnell on keyboards. It reached #4 on the UK Albums Chart and #29 on the US Billboard 200, and was certified gold by the RIAA — a commercial performance that placed it just behind its predecessor The Last in Line but confirmed the band's sustained standing atop the 1980s heavy metal hierarchy.
The nine-track, 38-minute album opens with the crowd-noise-driven rocker "King of Rock and Roll" before moving into the sprawling, mid-tempo title track — a six-and-a-half-minute epic built on Dio's trademark fantasy-realm lyricism and some of Campbell's most dramatic guitar work. The album's two official singles were "Rock 'n' Roll Children" — a story-driven, melodic track that served as the Side One closer — and "Hungry for Heaven," which had also appeared on the soundtrack for the 1985 film Vision Quest and remains one of the most-played Dio tracks on classic rock radio. Standouts on Side Two include the foot-stomping "Like the Beat of a Heart," driven by a memorable Bain bass line and one of Campbell's finest solos, and the charging "Fallen Angels," while the album closes with the more straightforward "Shoot Shoot."
Sacred Heart
Dio
Sacred Heart is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Dio, released on August 12, 1985 on Warner Bros. Records in North America and Vertigo elsewhere. Recorded at Rumbo Recorders in Los Angeles and produced by Ronnie James Dio himself, the album features the same core lineup as the band's first two records: Ronnie James Dio on vocals, Vivian Campbell on guitar, Jimmy Bain on bass, Vinny Appice on drums, and Claude Schnell on keyboards. It reached #4 on the UK Albums Chart and #29 on the US Billboard 200, and was certified gold by the RIAA — a commercial performance that placed it just behind its predecessor The Last in Line but confirmed the band's sustained standing atop the 1980s heavy metal hierarchy.
The nine-track, 38-minute album opens with the crowd-noise-driven rocker "King of Rock and Roll" before moving into the sprawling, mid-tempo title track — a six-and-a-half-minute epic built on Dio's trademark fantasy-realm lyricism and some of Campbell's most dramatic guitar work. The album's two official singles were "Rock 'n' Roll Children" — a story-driven, melodic track that served as the Side One closer — and "Hungry for Heaven," which had also appeared on the soundtrack for the 1985 film Vision Quest and remains one of the most-played Dio tracks on classic rock radio. Standouts on Side Two include the foot-stomping "Like the Beat of a Heart," driven by a memorable Bain bass line and one of Campbell's finest solos, and the charging "Fallen Angels," while the album closes with the more straightforward "Shoot Shoot."