Magica

Magica, released in the United States by Spitfire Records on 21 March 2000, was Dio's eighth studio album and its first since Angry Machines four years earlier. It was also Ronnie James Dio's first concept album, conceived as the first part of a trilogy. Three former members returned: guitarist Craig Goldy from Dream Evil, drummer Simon Wright from Lock Up the Wolves and bassist Jimmy Bain from the first four albums. The singer and Goldy shared the keyboards, and he produced the album himself at Total Access in Redondo Beach, California, with Wyn Davis as engineer. Work stopped for a couple of months in 1999 while he was with his seriously ill mother in New York, pushing the release into 2000. On Blessing, a planet that has lost its two suns, the priest Shadowcast and the forces of Evilsyde seize the Book of Magica, and the young Challis, given a spell by the wizard Eriel, saves the people. Songs such as "Eriel", "Challis" and "Otherworld" take their names from the story, and the album opens with the robotic narration of "Discovery" and "Magica Theme". Craig Goldy recalled that he and Ronnie James Dio also made the sound effects that link the songs, so the album runs as one piece. It closes with "Magica Story", the singer's eighteen-minute reading of the whole tale, which the booklet also printed. He said each song could stand on its own, the narration being something extra. The cover painting is by Mel Grant. The album reached number 13 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart, number 15 on the UK Rock & Metal Albums Chart, number 40 in Germany and number 71 on Japan's Oricon albums chart, and the band toured for fifteen months. The Japanese edition, out first on 1 March 2000, added the song "Annica". Ronnie James Dio kept working on the second and third parts, but "Electra", introduced in 2009, remains the only known completed track from them. His death in May 2010 left the trilogy unfinished. Niji Entertainment Group issued a two-disc edition with "Electra" and live tracks in 2013, and BMG a remaster by Wyn Davis in 2020.