LOS ANGELES: To untutored ears, perhaps, everything that remotely resembles the hoary riffs of heavy metal sounds very much the same. But occasionally a genuine talent within the genre manages to rise above the mass of debris that routinely settles on metal's seemingly endless horizons. Such a figure is Ronnie James Dio singer, songwriter and celebrated showman for such legendary metallurgists as Rainbow and Black Sabbath, and now leader of his own ensemble known simply as Dio.

While many other performers have shrieked and screamed their way to superstardom, Dio is known as a singer, managing to convey emotion with a pliant, high baritone, never lapsing into the murky drone into which many of his famous fellows have fallen. Make no mistake, Dio is no stranger to volume ("I've always liked volume...I've always liked power" he says). But once the sonic overload has subsided, his hallmark as a singer and writer has always been a haunting, eerie poetry - the aural equivalent of butterflies fluttering amongst a Gothic cathedral's charred, war-gutted ruins.

It's not surprising then, that Dio's first solo effort, Holy Diver, further continues his arcane explorations of things both metaphysical and melodic. And surprisingly enough, it is making chart headway without the benefit of a whole lot of radio play. It is not surprising, however, that Holy Diver ranks as one of the most intriguing heavy metal offerings of the year. Ranging in texture from the powerful "Straight Through The Heart" to the richly metaphorical title track, and climaxing in the robust "Rainbow In the Dark", the album's nine tracks are proof positive of Dio's talents as a performer, composer and producer in the metal genre.

Live, his four-piece group (drummer Vinny Appice, bassist Jimmy Bain and guitarist Vivian Campbell) sounds fabulous. Keeping his promise to pepper his set of freshly-penned originals with selections from Rainbow and Sabbath, Dio's performances - staged around a malevolent-looking silver mountain – are proving to be one of the heavy rock happenings this year.

Dio firmly believes that "making an album is only a reason, an excuse to make it happen live. You could spend a hundred years in the studio, and you would still say 'well, if I only had one more year, I could make it even better.' But it's stupid, because the more you labor over something, the more tedious it becomes. Expanding the songs, singing parts you couldn't sing before, getting the audience reaction - that's what it's all about."

With that caveat in mind, Dio discussed recordings by other heavy metal artists and current favorites, as well as his Desert Island Discs and a couple surprising influences from outside rock and roll. What was the first record you ever bought?

"It was an Elvis Presley record; "Lovin' You", I think." Whose records have you been listening to in the last year or two? "I liked Judas Priest's Screaming for Vengeance, I think they've finally found their own little section of the world. The other, especially the L.A. bands, copy Priest a lot, but that's cool. It's nice to copy someone who's good. I liked Def Leppard's Pyromania, I think they're a really good band. Their songs are good - they're very, very good - and I like the production. I like Iron Maiden's Piece of Mind, Bruce gets a lot of that [mystically-oriented material] from me - he's said as much. I liked the second Loverboy album (Get Lucky), I liked Foreigner's last one (4)...I like some of the newer things that are happening, I liked a couple of the INXS tracks - I thought they were quite good. I like Men At Work, although I found their second album to be pretty much a Boston trip, which is a carbon-copy of their first. I like some things that Duran Duran do; I like Culture Club, I like Boy George...I liked Robert Plant's first album (Pictures at Eleven).

"What are your Ten Favorite Albums of All Time?”

"Well Saturdav Night Fever, the first Zeppelin album, (Deep Purple's) Machine Head and Fireball, Axis: Bold as Love (by Jimi Hendrix), the first Foreigner album, the first Bad Company album, (Walter, now Wendy, Carlos) Switched- On Bach, any two Beatles albums, Abbey Road,

and probably, Revolver.

"You've mentioned that meeting Louie Armstrong was one of the highlights of your childhood. Was he ever a major influence on you musically?

"I liked Louie, I liked him as a person. I went to see him when I was nine, at a concert in the university of my home town (Cortland, NY). At nine years old, you can probably imagine that I wasn't much bigger than a beer bottle - really! I was waiting to get his autograph, and he spotted me. "Hey (reducing his voice low gravel)" - I don't do Louie very well - "hey, buddy," and he made everybody clear away, and brought me in. He asked me if I played trumpet, and I said I did. And, I liked him, not so much because he was the greatest trumpet player, but be- cause he had such charisma, and he was able to make this instrument that is usually shoved in your mouth, and make it speak. And make it speak through his warmth, through his brightness, through the love that you could feel around him. Because he did that for me, and did that to me, I mean, I'll just love the guy forever. And it's history what he's done, what he had done, as a goodwill ambassador.

"As far as my idol as a trumpet player, he is not. Harry James was my idol as a trumpet player. I loved the tone that he played, I loved the feeling that he played with, and I think because I tried to play like he did, he helped me immensely as a vocalist. Obviously, it helped me learn how to sing, and how to breathe. But Louie Armstrong was my man, because I just loved him as a person. He was just magic as a person."