On November 25th Ronnie was diagnosed with stomach cancer, sadly on May 16th he passed away losing his battle with the disease but leaving behind a legacy which will be remembered forever.

Ronnie was originally born Ronald James Padavona in New Hampshire in the US. He took up the name Dio from the mafia member Johnny Dio using the name professionally in 1961.

He was a notable member of Rainbow and his own band Dio which formed in 1982. Working on songs with Vinny Appice he created some of the most memorable metal songs of all time including Holy Diver and Rainbow In The Dark.

However he’s best remembered for his work in Black Sabbath which later became Heaven And Hell. If you watch ‘Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey’ he also reveals that he was the originator of the ‘devils horns’ that you now see at every metal gig around the world.

Ronnie was always distinguished by his professional nature and his incredible voice. He always had time for the press and fans alike.

I’m sure his loss will be felt by the metal community for many years to come.

We can all contribute to the battle against cancer by donating to charities urgently needed by sufferers and their families.

http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/
http://www.macmillan.org.uk/
http://www.mariecurie.org.uk/

When Risen Prophecy were first interviewed on our show they were an out and out thrash act. So I was surprised when I popped this CD in and found that its largely British Heavy Metal inspired tracks.

There aren’t very many traditional acts of this kind around at the moment since its somewhat of a specialist niche, but if Risen Prophecy are looking to revive the genre they’re doing a very good job!

Risen Prophecy formed back in 2005 and released their first two track EP however this is all together quite a different beast. The album itself features 8 songs totalling an hour in running time.
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01. Shamayim 01:53 02. Firmament 07:29 03. The First Commandment of the Luminaries 06:47 04. Ptolemy Was Wrong 06:28 05. Metaphysics of the Hangman 05:41 06. Catharsis of a Heretic 02:08 07. Swallowed by the Earth 04:59 08. Epiphany 03:21 09. The Origin of Species 07:23 10. The Origin of God 04:33

I’ve heard a lot of interesting things about The Ocean. Their origins lie in The Ocean Collective, a small army of creative types that founder and guitarist Robin Staps set up in the basement of an old aluminium factory in Berlin. They’ve been through 30-40 members, and have toured all over the world supporting the likes of Opeth and Cult of Luna. Their biography is so complex that you actually have to download it in a Word document from their website…I could go on for hours. The most important fact for right now, though, is that they’ve just released their fourth studio album, ‘Heliocentric’.

Frankly, the only way to “get” what The Ocean are really about, is to take a listen to their music. ‘Heliocentric’ is…well, it’s ambitious. It’s a simply mad album. It’s got a little bit of just about everything, from orchestral-backed jazz piano to double-bass drumming and growled death vocals. It’s sort of like a marriage between Opeth and The Mars Volta, at least in terms of vision and sheer manic ambition. It’s hard to sum up the scope of the album as a whole, really, so let’s go track-by-track…
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It’s about bloody time Kiss came back for a full UK tour. Last time they played Scotland, according to Paul Stanley, they performed at the Glasgow Apollo – a venue that closed 25 years ago. A lot of time has passed, and the painted rock legends have a lot of missed time to make up for.

First, however, hotly-tipped new rockers Taking Dawn largely fail to prove why they’re hotly-tipped. Sounding like Black Tide with a bit more hair on their balls, they power through a short set of heavy metal cannon fodder. Shapes are all present and correct; hair is swinging, guitars are being thrown around and textbook crowd-riling banter is spat by singer Chris Babbit, but there’s little more to it.
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01. For Me 05:38 02. Burn Black Light 04:59 03. Reaching Down 06:20 04. What I Breathe 04:49 05. Forgiveness 03:38 06. Don’t Falter 06:17 07. Then Fall 05:39 08. Into The Ocean 03:14

A cursory squint at their Myspace reveals that Order of Voices state their intention to exist somewhere in the region of the cutting edge of British alternative rock. At present, it’s true that this edge isn’t particularly sharp, and has seen far more cutting days, but Order of Voices are seeking to change this; an ambitious goal, to say the least, but ambition is one of the band’s strong suits.

What Order of Voices provide is an epic sound, layer upon layer of melodies. They specialise in having a melodic chorus soaring over heavily distorted mid-tempo riffs. It’s very slickly performed and produced, the various guitar melodies slot together nicely and the drums keep everything ticking over, and the vocals are near enough pitch-perfect. Can you feel me building to a “but“? Because I am…
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01. Sexual Chocolate 01:24 02. A Breaking Dawn 04:21 03. Six Weeks 02:53 04. Remember Who Put You There

‘Remember who put you there’ contains influences down the lines of: Metallica, Clutch, Snot and Down. The heavy metal crusaders from Portsmouth may have just been able to match them in producing an great album consisting of 4 amazing tunes. It’s been one of my favorite albums of 2010 so far which hasn’t been from a band on a major label. One album, four tunes, one hell of a time.
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01. Born to Kill 03:39 02. No Way but the Hard Way 03:34 03. Blonde, Bad and Beautiful 03:49 04. Raise the Flag 03:32 05. Bottom of the Well 04:29 06. White Line Fever 03:10 07. It Ain’t Over til it’s Over 03:17 08. Steel Town 03:08 09. Chewin’ the Fat 03:11 10. Armed and Dangerous 04:12 11. Overdrive 03:22 12. Back on the Bottle 03:50

Airbourne are just one of these bands that go out on the circuit to have fun and cause mayhem. Their first album ‘Runnin’ Wild’ was from start to finish one of the best rock albums I have heard in a long time. But then in 2010 the world was hit with another party anthem, fun loving album by Airbourne. Entitled ‘No Guts, No Glory’ its 13 amazing songs and best with a couple of pints of beer at which point anything can happen.
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01. The Edge of Darkness 04:33 02. Hunter and Prey 04:33 03. Into the Light 04:24 04. The Beggar’s Last Dime 05:43 05. Empty Hollow 06:20 06. Strings to a Web 03:54 07. Fatal Grace 01:21 08. Connected 02:54 09. Empty Hollow 01:51 10. Saviour of the Dead 05:45 11. Hellgirl 04:13 12. Purified 03:48 13. Through Ages 02:06 14. Tomorrow Never Comes 03:41

Some of you may have noticed that the song ‘Into the Light’ was played in the 49th episode of the podcast. This song is in fact the first single of Rage’s brilliant new album ‘Strings to a web’.

Strings to a Web is astonishingly Rage’s 20th album and by God they still know how to write an amazing album. The album is made up of high soaring guitar solo’s, wild moving synthesized keyboard parts and a Power Metal style of sing along choruses. Everything you could possibly want and more from a power/symphony metal record can be found on this album.
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Its Polling Day here in the UK I hope you’ve cast your vote in the General Election and to mark the occasion we have episode 50 of Ragnarok Radio.

This edition of the podcast features Dundee based Industrial Metallers Masonic Abyss. Their newest album Music for the Apocalypse is out now featuring 14 tracks, tune in to our show to hear one! We know its been a long interval between doing shows but we’d like to welcome you back with our newest member of the Ragnarok team Matt Seddon.
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 Episode 50 - Masonic Abyss [77:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

01. Flaming Flowers (Send in the Clowns) 03:10 02. I See 03:01 03. My Canvas, My Skin 03:18 04. Ride On 02:53 05. Until You Find Me 04:15 06. Satellite Children 03:33 07. Bleeding 03:10 08. Origin 04:03 09. Stranger In You 03:01 10. You Get So Alone 03:36 11. MIA 05:28

‘Soul for Sale’ doesn’t present what I would call the greatest first impression. Finnish “rock and roll machine” Soulcage choose to open their debut album with “Flaming Flowers (Send in the Clowns)”, and indeed a sort of group-vocal harmony cry of “Send in the clowns!”. For one enormously cringe-induced moment, I was worried that they really had. I’m not averse to a slice of cheese with my metal, but “Flaming Flowers” is…it‘s…it‘s not even good cheese. Something like old-school Sonata Arctica or Rhapsody, that’s good cheese; an aged camembert, perhaps. By comparison, this is more like that hellish cheese-in-a-can you get in America. It’s Cheez Whiz.

However, with your expectations firmly fixed at absolute zero, Soulcage cunningly flip the script and proceed to actually be quite good. From the piano harmony leading “I See”, things proceed in an altogether more pleasing fashion; “My Canvas My Skin” is actually a very good song, despite the lyrics verging back toward “processed dairy product” territory - you can certainly tell why it was released as the album’s first single. Soulcage exhibit musicianship and an ear for both riffs and harmonies that saves this album and indeed their music from the predictable tedium of the lyrics.
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