The incomparable Ronnie James Dio, at long last, makes his latest descent to the material world with his first new studio work in nearly four years entitled "Magica."  The new record is a resounding return to form for the band as well as a first time exploration into previously uncharted conceptual territory that surprisingly only materialized during the last year.  Considering the past track record of Dio who've long established a standard for weaving magical imagery and mysticism to music, one would've thought this idea for a concept would have been envisioned long ago.  RJD picks it up on the idea of designing something new for the band by returning back toward the band's glory days: "I wanted a reason to harken back to what we did before - I wanted this album to be more like Rainbow/Dio-more of what people expected from us. I think we got a bit confusing for a while with 'Angry Machines' (1996) and so this concept was something I knew I had to do… but it wasn't anything we had been looking forward to doing for a long time." The Rainbow similarities as well as those to the earliest Dio albums prevail throughout "Magica" as he has indeed veered slightly away from the recent Sabbath/Dio formula, successfully filling in the many dark spaces of the past with vibrancy and color to add a new dimension of atmosphere to music.  RJD describes how the band first moved away from and subsequently returned home: "Well I think it's because when we did the "Dehumanizer" album, the reunion thing with Sabbath, that really just got to be such a stark thing for me to write with no fantasy involved-no mentions of magic of any kind at all.  So I carried that same kind of attitude onto "Strange Highways" (1994).  We had a guitar player as well who wasn't that prototypical Ritchie Blackmore kind of player or Vivian Campbell or Craig Goldy kind of player.  And so the album's started to become that way.  I think purposely to become maybe a bit more modern, trying to compete with something we shouldn't have competed with.  And people on the streets would tell me we should do an album like 'Holy Diver' again… and so I listened to them, they were right!"

The lineup featured on "Magica" finds the return of some old friends who've undoubtedly helped shape the new sound based on the blueprints of the earlier classics: Craig Goldy, who first played with the band on '87's "Dream Evil," veteran bassist Jimmy Bain and drummer Simon Wright. Familiar names that have remained in relative obscurity in recent years, with the exception of Goldy who's remained busy with session work along with several projects of his own-"Ritual," "Insufficient Therapy."  RJD discusses their recent whereabouts and how he hooked up with them for the making of "Magica": I first contacted Craig to have him be the second guitar player in the band.  Tracy didn't feel he could pull it off with the addition of another guitarist, which I understood, and so it just basically left Craig which I preferred at that point because he was going to give me back what I needed from this kind of concept angle.  Jimmy had fought his way back from a substance abuse problem and luckily for him and us, he got himself sorted out and so he's been clean and sober now for two years… he's doing great.  He had called around the time the album was already written and shortly thereafter that was it-Jimmy was in place.  Simon had been with me now for 3 ½ years anyway.  He'd taken Vinny (Appice's) place when Vinny went to back up Bill Ward on the Sabbath reunion and Simon remained and stayed.  So it was real easy how it all came about.

Goldy, who might not necessarily possess the slickest or flashiest playing style, does lend a certain degree of heaviness to go along with the melody he delivers and according to RJD, he brings with him much more to the mix than just stunning guitar solos: "I could never have written this album without Craig.  He brings to the table this musical ability, musical ideas and sidetracks. I always write lyrics and the melodies for everything that I do and he's there with these chord changes… but we do this together.  It was a very good partnership-he knew his place, I knew my place, but we did it with a lot of joy…everything just flowed.

Going down the list of songs on "Magica," listeners will enjoy the traditional heaviness that solidified the earliest Dio moments into the true metal classics they are today as well as the highly imaginative storybook lyrics that tell a unique story within the context of each song while staying within the boundaries of the overall concept.  RJD goes into a brief shakedown of how much of "Magica" was brought to existence: "I think this is an album that really really worked.  The 'Magica' theme was what I wanted it to be-to tie the whole piece up-I wanted to do the theme first, vocal at the end.  "Lord of the Last Day" is taken from the standpoint of 'Shadowcast' who is the character you see on the front cover.  That was his opening to it all, telling how bad he was, ('I love the night… So many shadows… Unholy light… Putting out the spark…. Leave 'em in the dark-Forever) how evil he was.  'Turn to Stone' is really one of the cruxes of the whole thing-they turn people to stone and send the spirits down to other worlds.  All these songs follow so easily, the pattern of the story.  Usually you deal with tempos, now I was dealing with actual realities I had to write to make these songs come alive.  The point was always to make them removable from the concept so they could be viewed as single songs.  'Feed My Head' is a song we probably wrote more with the European audience in mind, because it's one of those kinds of things you can do together-but again, an important song from the point of the evil guy who's taking all the spirits and putting them in one place and using that energy to be able to keep the good people at bay forever.  'Ariel' was written with Jimmy in mind-he's a master of (begins emulating bass-beats in a manner of 'Holy Diver', 'Last in Line').  'Challis' is probably most like something from 'Holy Diver' I thought, maybe a little bit more like 'Rainbow…' because of the drum hits and all, but a song about a rebellious part of the thing-about a young guy who's like, 'give me a break…' and 'Ariel' of course shows him the way and we find out later on that he's Ariel's son.  'Losing My Insanity' is one where I just wanted to write something that really had a medieval nature to it, which the beginning does with the little pan flute and guitar."

"Magica" is not an album that boasts any broad message or play the role of superhero in a world shuddered by darkness.  There was no hidden agenda within the writing of the material with a goal toward enlightenment or good presiding over evil or lessons in right and wrong.  "I didn't plan it to be a message, I just wrote a story that addresses that there is good and there is evil… this is Heaven and this is earth and good and evil reside in each one of us.  At the end of the day, evil never goes away.  Anyone who thinks that at the end of the story good triumphs, well it didn't because evil still exists and there are more battles to be fought as they say at the end.  That's the whole point of "Magica."  Humanity is good and humanity is evil.  There is no separating the two no matter what Pat Robertson tells us or what Jerry Fallwell says.  I just wanted to write an interesting story and I did it from the perspective of this book of "Magica" and from the evil man "Shadowcast" and the fact that good seemed to conquer… but it didn't really.

With all of the imaginative twists and turns the story of "Magica" takes, this is only where the journey begins as RJD addresses the open-ended conclusion to the album and what direction is taken from there: "I left it open but not because I want to do another 'Magica' album.  I want to write a trilogy-a proper literary trilogy.  This will be book one, which you read here, of course in a much broader perspective.  Then it will go to Ariel as a young man in the 2nd one, and then it will go from 'Challis' as the order of the high lord, to what happens to him with these other battles that I suggest here." Listen to the album, stay tuned for the final narration in the "Magica Story" and definitely read the inner booklet which goes into full detail of how the tale begins-it's as wondrous and stunning as you might expect.  Future plans also include developing an animated film to go along with the entire concept.

Building off that, RJD discussed the possibilities of interpreting the grandeur of "Magica" in front of a live audience and how all of the images from the storyline would translate to the stage and bringing the whole concept to life as some of his past productions had been famous for: "My aim is to make people be able to escape for a little while. Let 'em go to see "Dio-land" as opposed to Disneyland.  That was always my way of paying back the fans to thank them for putting me here.  That was important to me and still is, but we don't make the kind of money these days.  If this album should be as successful as I hope it will be, then I'll pour that money back in and you'll see a stage show like how we used to do.  I'd love to be able to do it… this album screams to come alive with a stage set, but again, in the socio-economic times we live in, I'm not sure if it could happen right now."  Indeed, the big elaborate stage designs have for the most part remained a thing of the past.  Although there is some promise that the big live productions are again primed to make the rounds as the return of Kiss has made clear and the upcoming plans surrounding the likes of fellow veteran performers like Maiden and Priest.  There is an interesting alternate plan however as RJD explains: "Hopefully it'll happen for us too but if it doesn't happen that way, then my plans are to take it into a smaller theater like maybe 2500 - 3500 seats and do a big production and film it for a video release.  Fans can see it anytime they want, with a live audience and the band playing live… so if it doesn't work one way, believe me, I'll get it to work another way."

Would a video still be a consideration aside from these circumstances? "We're doing a video for 'Fever Dreams' and probably one for 'Challis' as well.  And we're doing it in DVD.  It'll have footage that people probably haven't seen before.  In fact I've just gotten my hands on some old Elf footage that no one has ever seen!  So anything we can put on the DVD to make it more interesting or entertaining is what we'll do. We've also got footage from Dio shows that have never been seen before-with Craig, with Vivian, with Rowan (Robertson).  So there are a lot of things we'll be doing and we're not just going to sit down and do nothing… we'll give a lot back. With such a vast array of material accumulated throughout his years with Rainbow and of course Sabbath as well as Dio, where would "Magica" fall within the live performance with so much to choose from and considering
that it's an album that works really well when played in succession. RJD concludes: "We'll do almost the entire album.  There's some things we're gonna have to cut back because having such a long career there are things we have to do… and I can't be onstage for four hours!  The show will be too intense certainly from a vocal standpoint.  So we'll cut it back a little bit… it won't be the Reader's Digest version, but it will be cut back somewhat yet it'll be broad enough to tell the tale as it needs to be told.  And then again, if things go well, we can probably do the entire thing from beginning to end and not have to rely so much on the classic material.  But you've got to do what the people want to hear.  And, we'll do songs from Dio that we haven't done in fifteen years: 'Invisible', 'All the Fools Sailed Away', 'Gypsy'.  The type of songs that no one has heard for such a long time but have always requested.  So it's gonna be a different show-most of this whole album plus things we haven't dug up for a long time!"