Killing the Dragon

Killing the Dragon, released in the United States by Spitfire Records on 21 May 2002, was Dio's ninth studio album. After fifteen months on the road with Magica, Ronnie James Dio began writing at once with Jimmy Bain, and the first eight basic tracks were cut with Craig Goldy playing guide guitars. Goldy, short of time between family and work, then left, and the new guitarist, Doug Aldrich, played all the guitars on the album and co-wrote the last two songs. The line-up was the singer himself, Aldrich, Bain on bass and keyboards and Simon Wright on drums, with Scott Warren adding keyboards to "Before the Fall". The singer produced it at Total Access in Redondo Beach, where Angry Machines and Magica had been made, with Wyn Davis as engineer, and it was the band's first album recorded entirely on Pro Tools. Bain co-wrote nine of the ten songs; Goldy shares the credits for "Rock & Roll", "Push" and "Throw Away Children", and Aldrich those for "Along Comes a Spider" and "Scream". The King Harbour Children's Choir sings on "Throw Away Children". The first single, "Push", brought the band's first video in some time; directed by Bill Schacht, it opens with Jack Black and Kyle Gass of Tenacious D playing their own version of Black Sabbath's "Heaven and Hell". Marc Sasso painted the cover. The album sold 5,722 copies in its first week and spent one week on the Billboard 200 at number 199, the band's first appearance on that chart since Strange Highways in 1994. It reached number 18 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart, number 16 on the UK Rock & Metal Albums Chart, number 40 in Germany and number 85 on Japan's Oricon albums chart. From 31 May the band toured the United States with Deep Purple and Scorpions, starting in Las Vegas. A Tour Edition on 22 October added "Fever Dreams" and "Rainbow in the Dark", recorded live with members of Deep Purple at the Ahoy in Rotterdam, and the "Push" video. BMG reissued the album in 2020 with six live tracks from the 2002-2003 tour.