Dio

Despite your opinion regarding Ronald James Dio and his pop-metal ministrations, you have to give it up for the little elf. He's fronted some of most classic and influential metal bands in history and he abandoned a career in the pharmaceutical industry to do so, proving that he does have an ethical bone in his body. He's about 62 years old and still kicks it like his "Neon Knights" prime and, for Christ's sake, he invented that whole "devil horns" metal-finger salute that every two-bit numb-nuts from Avril Lavigne to Ihsahn flashes whenever you stick a camera in their faces. Killing The Dragon is what you might expect from Dio: a gathering of cheesy cover art, dumb lyrics, simple riffing topped off by flashy Guitar World-worthy solos and the soaring vocals of the namesake front-man. If you're already a fan of what Dio does, then you don't need convincing because this sounds like everything else he's ever done. There may be an absence of the huge The Last In Line or Holy Diver potential hit single, but I can picture the title track, "Better in the Dark" and "Cold Feet" being embraced by Dio-ites the world over.