Guitarists included Vivian Campbell, Craig Goldy, Doug Aldrich, Warren DeMartini,[2] Tracy G, Jake E. Lee and Rowan Robertson.

In 1982, disagreements originating over the mixing of Black Sabbath's Live Evil album resulted in the departure of Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice from the band.

[4] Wanting to continue together as a band, the two formed Dio in October 1982 in the United States with guitarist Jake E. Lee and bassist Jimmy Bain.

Dio and Bain played keyboards in the studio, but keyboardist Claude Schnell was recruited for live shows in 1983 prior to the Holy Diver tour.

In 1985, Dio, Campbell and Bain also wrote the song "Stars" for the Hear 'n Aid project, with many other heavy metal luminaries of the time contributing.

[11] In June 1989, 18-year-old Rowan Robertson was announced as Goldy's successor but further changes were to follow, with Schnell, Bain and Appice leaving the band.

During the tour, Dio had a chance meeting with former Black Sabbath bandmate Geezer Butler which led to that band's short-lived reunion, producing one album, Dehumanizer.

By early 1993, guitarist Tracy G, keyboardist Scott Warren of Warrant and bassist Jeff Pilson of Dokken had all joined.

With disappointing record sales for Angry Machines, management wanted the band to go back to their earlier style prompting the departure of Tracy G[13] to be replaced by the returning Craig Goldy.

It featured not only the return of Goldy but also of Simon Wright and Jimmy Bain, although on the European leg of the tour Chuck Garric played bass.

Scott Warren remained in the band and performed live, although Dio and Bain handled all of the keyboard and synth on Magica.

A concept album, Magica featured a return to the band's older, more successful sound, while increased use of keyboards gave it a more modern feel.

Goldy left the band in January 2002 and was replaced with Doug Aldrich, who Bain had met while recording a tribute album for Metallica.

The album features multi-instrumentalist Jeff Pilson (formerly of Dokken) on bass duties; however, because of prior obligations with Foreigner, he was only available for the recording sessions, and so was replaced by Rudy Sarzo (formerly of Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, Blue Öyster Cult among others) on the tour.

His manager and wife Wendy Dio thanked well-wishers and said "After he kills this dragon, Ronnie will be back on stage, where he belongs, doing what he loves best, performing for his fans.

The set includes the Killing the Dragon CD, Evil or Divine DVD (PAL format only), DVD bonus material, interviews, photo gallery, never-before-seen behind the scenes footage, promo video for the Killing the Dragon track "Push", exclusive Dio cards, and the bonus CD single "Electra" (which is the last song the band recorded), from the unfinished albums Magica II & Magica III.

Goldy goes on to say of the lyrics, that they were written by Dio when he was fighting cancer, and are "very emotional" and "hard to listen to without a lump at the back of your throat".

This announced line-up would feature former Lynch Mob vocalist and The Offspring touring member Andrew Freeman stepping in for Dio.

Murray appears to be a demon torturing a cleric, but Ronnie James Dio said that it is not necessarily clear which one is the monster and which one is the priest.

On this cover, resurrected souls emerge from their graves on Judgment Day to find a gigantic Murray staring at them from the far horizon.

The character Dio Brando, the main antagonist of the manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is named after the band.