Ronnie James Dio’s favourite grunge bands

By the time grunge started in the early 1990s, it spelt the end of most modern metal acts. Although bands like Nirvana may have professed to enjoy a handful of hard rock acts growing up, their disdain for modern bands like Guns N’ Roses sent the rest of the hair metal scene into a massive downward spiral, with bands scrambling to find out where to go next. While Ronnie James Dio already had his legacy secure as a metal god, he did admit to enjoying a handful of grunge acts.

Granted, it’s not hard to see why Dio’s signature schtick didn’t appeal to the flannel-shirt-clad rockers from Seattle. Considering the mindset of bringing every genre back to something more authentic, seeing Dio singing about mythical themes born out of Dungeons and Dragons seemed more than a little bit far-fetched at the time.

Of all the groups to emerge from the Seattle scene, though, Dio had a distinct love for Kurt Cobain’s voice. When talking about his tone, Dio told Rock Eyez, “I liked Nirvana very much. Kurt Cobain‘s voice had great harmonics in it, and the ‘go for broke’ music was very cool”. Having a distinctively different tone than Dio, the raw aggression in Cobain’s voice appealed to legions of fans worldwide, looking to tear down the norms when they heard songs like ‘In Bloom’.

While Nirvana were channelling their music through a punk ethos, Soundgarden was more in line with classic rock in Dio’s mind. Rather than going after the cheap paycheck, Dio loved how unconventional the group’s writing style was, explaining, “That’s what I like about the young bands. They’ll go ‘Screw you, this is what we gonna play. That’s what I mean about bands like Soundgarden and hopefully us too. Listening to what’s out there and making the music a little more progressive”.

Soundgarden also fits the description better than most other Seattle bands for all of the hangups with modern-day metal. From the minute he opened his mouth, it was clear that Chris Cornell would be a force to be reckoned with, complete with a Robert Plant-esque wail. Though Soundgarden was heavier than most expected out of Seattle, Alice in Chains was closest to the sounds that Black Sabbath originated.

Writing in the mould of guitarists like Tony Iommi, Jerry Cantrell created songs that Dio also loved, thinking they all held up to some quality. Even if they weren’t in the traditional metal vein, though, Dio would recognise the massive amount of musicality throughout the Seattle scene, citing Pearl Jam as favourites and even giving love to Stone Temple Pilots despite originating in San Diego.

Some grunge fans would even admit to enjoying Dio’s music, with Dave Grohl recalling to Eric Blair, “That’s one of the things I’ve always loved about Dio’s music. It’s not overly complicated or orchestrated. It’s a sum of a few very simple parts, and it’s powerful. And I fucking grew up with that shit. It makes you want to become a musician”.

While no grunge band ever sounded completely the same, Dio never saw the new school of rock bands measuring up to a certain metal pedigree. In his mind, the song was the most important thing, and as long as bands could write a good melody, that was all that mattered.