Last In Line

[Basvarken]

I really like how the bass sounds in the new song of the forthcoming album of Last In Line (Dio without Dio)
Thunderous fat bass! Good song too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8t-9o-jyrI&sns=em

[gearHed289]

They sound really good. Singer is pretty great. Is that Jimmy Bain???

[Basvarken]

Yes Jimmy Bain, Vinnie Appice and Vivian Campbell.
And Andy Freeman on lead vocal. I can imagine him singing the RJD songs easily.

[Highlander]

It was as DIO that I last saw any of them...

[uwe]

But Jimmy Bain sounds like he always sounds (when he plays heavy rock or metal that is)!!! He's been replicating his scoopy-clanky-bit distorty sound since Rainbow Rising days, just listen to him here at 1:46 in 1976, classic Rainbow line up:



With his Wild Horses project it became a bit darker and warmer:



But he reverted to type with Dio (the band):



And we all (Nofi and Dave excepted of course!  ) heard it here too:



I find this sound of his an acquired taste: Gruber, Daisley, Glover and Smith (the other Rainbow bassists) all sounded warmer, with more tone and not as strained clanky. Yes, Jimmy, we now quite know, you play roundwounds with a pick, the sonic evidence is ample!!! 

To be fair, it must be something he feels he needs to do for the music (he also auditioned with the Stones post-Wyman and had hopes getting the gig, I imagine he would have used another sound with them too). Frankly, I prefer him when he sounds (and plays stuff) like this, I do like the sound of his (not very mighty, but tuneful) voice:



But it's (wild) horses for courses.

Yet seeing the above vid it strikes me that poor Viv C. has been sidelined by Phil Collen in Def Leppard for so long (and has consequently spent so much of his life as a musician "leaving space" in their pop rock***)



that he is not really a heavy metal lead guitarist anymore. He sounds like he is going through the motions. Dio even without Dio needs a more assertive guitarist - Viv once was, but he has changed his style (I'm not knocking him for developing into someone else than the Irish kid who played on Holy Diver more than 30 years ago!).

*** I have nothing against the Defs either. They are an industrious group with strong inner-band ties, all credit to them, Pyromania was an early 80ies classic, yet Hysteria for me already devoid of any life. The late Steve Clark will always be their overshadowing Uli Jon Roth (in the Scorps) or Mick Taylor (in the Stones) while Collen/Campbell are firmly in the able "and good for the band" but uninspiring Matthias Jabs/Ronnie Wood league.

[TBird1958]

Nice to see Vivian doing something else, without Steamin' Steve Clark Def Leppard is indeed pretty sterile, I'm glad I saw them while he was still alive.

[Basvarken]

I like Vivian Campbell's playing on this Last In Line song. He has obviously matured. He doesn't need the twiddly diddly shredder stuff anymore to prove he's a hell of a guitar player. And I like Jimmy Bain's bass sound on this song / mix too. Sounds a bit fuller and bassier than he did with the old Dio songs.
But I don't want to over analyse it too much,
I just liked what I heard and it took away the scepticism that I had when I first read they were going to record new songs.
I expected something like Black Star Raiders, which I really didn't like at all (being a Thin Lizzy fan)


By the way: Vivian recorded this stuff while he was undergoing chemo treatment. Hats off to him. It must have been extremely rough times for him...

[uwe]

He has my admiration for that. It looks like he will never be without the disease, but has a good chance of surviving. All the best.

I was never much of a Dio (the band) fan anyway. I thought the music sluggish and inelegant for the most part. I did like this one here though, even though it is very much in the Heaven and Hell/Holy Diver treadmill:



Fräuleinwunders gave it a try too. There are better female singers out there than Doro, but she is sincere in what she does:

[Highlander]

I only ever saw Def Leppard as spotty youths supporting bigger acts...

[uwe]

That's how I started seeing them too, opening for Rainbow, opening for Priest, yet a few years later they had eclipsed both bands though they had no Ritchie Blackmore and no Robert Halford in their ranks. The only really notable musician within Def Leppard was Steve Clark.



But as a band they left their mark.

[Basvarken]

Never cared for Def Leppard.

I like what Viv did with Riverdogs. Completely different from the Dio and Def Leppard songs.

Riverdogs in 1990


Riverdogs reunion couple of years ago

[wellREDman]

 I toured with Def lep in 05, Vivian was by far the musical high point, not for the shows where he was expected to replicate Steve's parts and was only let off the leash on the newer stuff, but for his soundchecks. The rest of the band hardly ever soundchecked, leaving their backline guys to do a line check, but Vivian always turned up and entertained us crew with half an hour of amazing blues improv and covers  Hes a great singer also, he sometimes did a really slow version of Don't Believe a Word, even slower and bluesier than Gary Moores version, I really wish i had a recording of it

His solo blues album is worth a listen too

its a shame to hear about his health issues

[Highlander]

Seek and ye shall find...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSLjPsGDA5M

Not the only one out there either...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzL4FGJH6D0

Uwe... I think it was supporting Priest that I saw them too... the other occasion was supporting Sammy Hagar... also saw them in their own right at the Marquee...
Only ever saw Phil Coleen with Girl... as support and at the Marquee a few times...

[wellREDman]

Seek and ye shall find...

   Ta

  Aint' the interwebs grand !

was similar to the second one, except just him and his gold top

[Highlander]

Got it... if you are struggling to find an MP3 I'll pm you a useful link...