History Music / RonnieJamesDio

* CommonKnowledge: People who know Dio by his fantasy-influenced later reputation often assume his early band Elf fits into the HeavyMithril fold, based on its name. The lyrics of Elf's music touch on general bluesy themes, with no notable mystical influence, and the music itself is BluesRock rather than metal.

* HeavyMithril: If not the TropeMaker[[note]]the trope dates as far back as Music/LedZeppelin[[/note]] then certainly the TropeCodifier. Lyrics he wrote often carried fantasy elements such as magic and dragons. He was in a band called Elf, and the music video for ''Holy Diver'' features a sword-wielding Dio running through a spooky castle and fighting medieval dudes.

* BluesRock: Before Dio joined Music/{{Rainbow}}, Elf's music awesomely combined HardRock with RAndB.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Mostly in the 6-7 range, the odd ballad aside (those are usually a bit lower). A few songs on ''Strange Highways'' and ''Angry Machines'' get up to an 8, such as "Jesus, Mary and the Holy Ghost".

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* SongOfSongTitles: "My Eyes", covering his tenures in Music/{{Rainbow}} and Music/BlackSabbath as well.

* SelfBackingVocalist: Would make extensive use of this, as with a few exceptions virtually all of the backing vocals on his albums are done by him. This also applies to his work with Music/{{Rainbow}} and Music/BlackSabbath, along with the [[Music/TheDevilYouKnow]] album with Heaven and Hell.

* NightmareDreams: ''Dream Evil's'' title song and album artwork.

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Strange Highways'' and ''Angry Machines'' have a heavier and more DoomMetal influenced sound than most of his other work, and feature Dio mostly abandoning the fantasy thematics of his other work for focusing on realistic issues like child abuse ("Give Her the Gun"), divorce ("Don't Tell the Kids"), and mental illness ("Institutional Man"). Dio's vocal style is also significantly harsher.

* EpicRocking: "Egypt (The Chains Are On)", "All the Fools Sailed Away", "Lock Up the Wolves", "Strange Highways", "Stay Out of My Mind" and "Eriel".

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Mostly in the 6-7 range, the odd ballad aside (those are usually a bit lower).

[[caption-width-right:291: Gaze into the eyes of your new god. [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Because even dead gods dream.]]]]

* ''The Devil You Know'' (2009)

* HeavyMeta: While known mainly for writing fantasy-themed lyrics, he also wrote quite a few songs about ThePowerOfRock. "Stand Up And Shout" and "Rock And Roll Angel"[[note]]which mixes ThePowerOfRock with HeavyMithril[[/note]], for example. Plus, one of his final songs was called "Metal Will Never Die" and is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin about the lasting appeal of the genre.]]

* HeavyMithril: Lyrics he wrote often carried fantasy elements such as magic and dragons. He was in a band called Elf, and the music video for ''Holy Diver'' features a sword-wielding Dio running through a spooky castle and fighting medieval dudes.

** Subverted by God Himself, as Dio was 5'4" (1.62m.) That's a lot of ham in a not-so-large frame.

* PintSizedPowerhouse : Packed one of the most powerful voices in hard rock / metal history into a 5'4" frame.

* PowerBallad: "All the Fools Sailed Away", "This is Your Life" and "As Long as It's Not About Love".

* ''Magica'' (2000)

!! Rainbow in the Tropes :

!! Ronnie James Dio provides examples of:

* BluesRock: Before Dio joined Music/{{Rainbow}}, Elf's music awesomely combined HardRock with RhythmAndBlues.

** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEV4Tov1GBM music video]] for ''The Last in Line'' makes less than no sense -- [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs it makes negative sense]].

* SignatureSong: "Man On The Silver Mountain"

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Despite his demonic onstage persona, the off-stage Dio was known as one of the nicest guys in metal. (Most of the time, anyway. See Berserk Button, above.)

* BarbarianLonghair: And how?

*** And ''Hey you''.