Book - Martin Popoff - Killing The Dragon: Dio in the 90's and 2000's

Completing the story started with Dream Evil: Dio in the ‘80s, Killing the Dragon: Dio in the ‘90s and 2000s celebrates the latter half of the Dio band’s distinguished catalogue and career, ended by the tragic death of Ronnie James Dio on May 16, 2010.

Lock Up the Wolves, Strange Highways, Angry Machines, Magica, Killing the Dragon and Master of the Moon… these were darker days for Dio, with Ronnie saddled with a more pessimistic and even fatalistic way of thinking. Touched upon as well is Ronnie’s twice descent back into Black Sabbath world, first with Dehumanizer and then the re-christened Heaven & Hell band, with whom Ronnie performed his last show ever, on August 29th, 2009, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The mission of this book however is to focus on the Dio band, including its live albums and post-death archival releases, again, with touch-downs on adjacent bands, including the aforementioned Sabbath as well as WWIII, 3 Legged Dog, Dio Disciples and Last in Line.

But it’s the six Dio studio albums from after the ‘80s that anchor Killing the Dragon: Dio in the ‘90s and 2000s. In that spirit, Martin offers his celebrated and time-honoured track-by-track trawl through this catalogue of immense importance, with extensive interview footage from members of the band all along the way, including two who are no longer with us, bassist Jimmy Bain and the beloved icon himself, Ronald James Padavona.