Angry Machines

Angry Machines is Dio's 1996 studio album, made by Ronnie James Dio with the band from Strange Highways, guitarist Tracy G, bassist Jeff Pilson and drummer Vinny Appice, with Scott Warren on keyboards. Dio produced it himself, Wyn Davis engineered, and it was recorded and mixed at Total Access in Redondo Beach, California. SPV's Steamhammer label released it in Europe, and in the United States it came out on Mayhem Records, marketed and distributed by the Futurist Label Group. The cover illustration is by Paul Gregory. Ronnie James Dio said in a 1997 interview that the band had used a lot of time-signature changes on this record and that its lyrical attitudes were more modern. The same article described its lyrics as turning to contemporary subjects such as divorce, crime and isolation. Louder has heard a grungy feel in songs such as "Black" and "Hunter of the Heart", and calls the closing "This Is Your Life" a piano-led ballad. In the credits, "Stay Out of My Mind" is Pilson's alone and "This Is Your Life" belongs to Dio and Tracy G, while the other eight songs carry the names of Dio, Tracy G and Appice. Dio said that a friend had used "This Is Your Life" as a wedding song. The album did not reach the American album charts on release, but on Gavin Report's hard-rock radio chart it stood at number 15 on 1 November 1996. Wendy Dio later called it her least favourite Dio album musically, feeling that Ronnie James Dio had been pushed toward a more industrial sound, and Tracy G replied that Dio himself had the final say over the recording. Jeff Pilson said in 2026 that many more people would have appreciated the music had the band not been called Dio. BMG's remastered reissue of 20 March 2020 added a second disc of twelve live recordings from the 1997 tour and reached number 44 in Germany, number 26 in Spain and number 12 on the UK Rock & Metal Albums Chart.