Sacred Heart 1985

"This album has received a couple of bad reviews and low ratings over at the Metal Music Archives, the main point of criticism being that it lacks originality. I agree that the songs on this album are not always original or groundbreaking, but, for my money, that does not make it a bad album. In other genres, lack of originality would be a big problem (and one of my pet peeves in relation to original pop music is indeed that it lacks originality), but - for some reason - when it comes to 80s traditional heavy metal, lack of originality is forgivable.

While perhaps not original, I think that most of the tracks on this album are solid, with only a couple of the heavier tracks clumsily limping along. There is plenty of good classic riffage, and, of course, Dio's vocals are as impressive as ever. There are a lot of keyboard on this album, but they never become central, serving only to supplement the guitars.

I think that fans of traditional heavy metal and perhaps more commercial hard rock would like this album.

(review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"