Album Review: Last In Line - II

I have been hard on every one of the groups put together from different combinations of the ashes left after Dio's passing. None of them have come close to matching even the worst records Ronnie put out, and they all seem to me to exist for no reason other than to use his popularity to reinvigorate careers that would otherwise be over. Before these bands started popping up, no one was clamoring for new Vivian Campbell and Craig Goldy records. Certainly, no one wanted to hear them putting out records they tried to tie to Dio's legacy. Given the acrimony between them, Last In Line with Vivian Campbell was the least welcome of them all. Their first record was a crashing disappointment to me, and the fact they have come back with the ultra-clever title of "II" is not inspiring any new confidence.

Things get off to an uninspiring start with "Blackout The Sun", which is four minutes of two note blues that fails to establish any kind of groove, hook, or melody. Andrew Freeman is a good singer, but he offers up nothing on the song. It's the kind of songwriting that relies entirely on charisma to get over, and these guys don't have that kind of presence. Ronnie did, and perhaps he would have been able to salvage it, but I doubt it. The same thing is true of "Year Of The Gun", one of the pre-release singles. The band goes through the motions, and then throws out a chorus that has no melody to it at all. They shout the title a few times, which is lazy songwriting.

The other single, "Landslide", was actually pretty good. It had more of an identity, and more of a melody to it. I found myself enjoying it, but then I was left scratching my head when the aforementioned second single came out and was so different. We do get a few more tracks in this mold, though. "Gods And Tyrants" is another good one that tells me the band could be much better than they currently are, if they applied themselves a bit more.

What baffles me most, though, is what the purpose of Last In Line is. The group was put together for the original Dio lineup to play together again, which I didn't like, but I understood. Now, with only Vivian and Vinny Apice left, the group sounds nothing like Dio at all. They are far closer to Vivian's other band, Riverdogs. This record is bluesy rock, and not the metallic thunder he played alongside the legend. If anything, hearing this as the kind of music Vivian comes up with on his own makes it clear his leaving Dio was not one of the great 'what ifs' of rock history. Dio never sang anything like this, so their separation now seems natural, even without the business disagreements.

I'm not sure whether or not that approach is better than Goldy finding a singer who can appropriately imitate Ronnie, and putting out an album that sounded just like a later Dio record. They both are questionable in their own way. But I can leave that behind for the sake of talking about these songs on their own, because they don't do anything to make me question my doubts. This record is rather dull (from a production standpoint), and I'm just not buying into the heavy blues lean in most of the songs.

It's not as bad a record as I was fearing. In addition to the songs I've already mentioned, "Give Up The Ghost" and "Love And War" are also solid tracks that could be part of a good record. There's enough here to lift the record up above things that are truly terrible, like The Three Tremors record from January. That said, there's also stuff like "Electrified", which sounds like a middle aged person trying to recapture the energy of their youth. It doesn't work at all.

So what Last In Line leaves us with is another frustrating album that hints as good things, and then buries them under the weight of disappointment. Maybe I would be a bit more open to this if it wasn't tied to Dio's legacy, but even then I doubt I would be able to say this is a record worth searching out. At this stage of the game, half-and-half records aren't enough to keep my interest.