''Sacred Heart'' is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Dio. It was released on August 13, 1985 on

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

in North America, and

Vertigo Vertigo is a condition where a person has the sensation of movement or of surrounding objects moving when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. This may be associated with nausea, vomiting, sweating, or difficulties w ...

elsewhere. The record peaked at No. 29 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart. It includes the singles " Rock 'n' Roll Children" and " Hungry for Heaven". This was the last Dio album to include guitarist

Vivian Campbell Vivian Patrick Campbell (born 25 August 1962) is a Northern Irish guitarist. He came to prominence in the early 1980s as a member of Dio (band), Dio, and has been a member of Def Leppard since 1992 (replacing Steve Clark after his death). Camp ...

, who was fired midway through the album's tour. Campbell went on to join several other bands, most notably

Def Leppard Def Leppard are an English rock band formed in 1976 in Sheffield. Since 1992, the band has consisted of Rick Savage (bass, backing vocals), Joe Elliott (lead vocals), Rick Allen (drums, backing vocals), Phil Collen (guitar, backing vocals), a ...

, Riverdogs,

Whitesnake Whitesnake are an English hard rock band formed in London in 1978. The group was originally put together as the backing band for singer David Coverdale, who had recently left Deep Purple. Though the band quickly developed into their own entit ...

and

Thin Lizzy Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Their music reflects a wide range of influences, including blues, soul music, psychedelic rock and traditional Irish folk music, but is generally classified as hard rock or some ...

. A rift occurred during the recording of this album between Dio and the guitarist, Dio stating in an interview "...for me, he (Viv) wasn't even there for this record." The album, along with ''

Holy Diver ''Holy Diver'' is the debut studio album by the American heavy metal band Dio, released in 1983. Vocalist Ronnie James Dio had just finished his first tenure in Black Sabbath, whose drummer, Vinny Appice, he took with him to put together his ...

'' and '' The Last in Line'', was released in a new 2-CD Deluxe Edition on March 19, 2012 through

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a ...

for worldwide distribution outside the U.S. Clocking in at 38 minutes, ''Sacred Heart'' is the band's shortest album. The

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

certified ''Sacred Heart'' Gold (500,000 units sold) on October 15, 1985. It was for a long time the last Dio album to receive this certification, until '' The Very Beast of Dio'' was certified gold on November 3, 2009.

Tour

The accompanying stageshow was a spectacle involving a mechanised dragon and laser effects, as captured on the VHS (and later DVD reissue) '' Sacred Heart "The Video"''. Ronnie James Dio and his band referred to the dragon as Dean (although the press renamed it “Denzil”).

Cover

The cover art is by Robert Florczak. The inscription around the border of the cover is in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and reads ''FINIS PER SOMNIVM REPERIO TIBI SACRA COR VENEFICVS OSTIVM AVRVM''. A possible rendering is ''Along the borders of dreams I found for you the sacred poisonous heart and golden door.'' More data useful for the interpretation could be contained within the lyrics to the song "Sacred Heart". Since Latin relies on context for a translation the inscription could translate as follows, "comes the end by sleep I will prepare the sacred heart which is the magic that opens upon the altar".

Track listing

Personnel

;Dio *

Ronnie James Dio Ronald James Padavona (July 10, 1942 – May 16, 2010), known professionally as Ronnie James Dio, was an American heavy metal singer. He fronted and founded numerous bands throughout his career, including Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio and H ...

– vocals *

Vinny Appice Vincent Samson Appice (born September 13, 1957) is an American rock drummer best known for his work with the bands Dio, Black Sabbath, and Heaven & Hell. Of Italian descent, he is the younger brother of drummer Carmine Appice. Career Appice ...

– drums *

Jimmy Bain James Stewart Bain (19 December 1947 – 23 January 2016) was a Scottish musician, best known for playing bass guitar in the bands Rainbow and Dio. He also worked with Kate Bush and Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott, co-writing on his solo ...

– bass *

– guitar *

Claude Schnell Claude Schnell (born May 17, 1955) is an American keyboardist who has been a member of the bands Magic, Rough Cutt, Dio, and Last in Line. Biography Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in France, when he was six years old his family mo ...

– keyboards ;Additional musician *

Craig Goldy Thomas "Craig" Goldy (born November 6, 1961) is an American musician, best known as the guitarist of the rock bands Dio and Giuffria. Early musical life Goldy was born in San Diego, California. Before Dio, he played in the bands Vengeance, R ...

– guitar on "Time to Burn" ;Production * Recorded at

Rumbo Recorders Rumbo Recorders was a recording studio in the Canoga Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. History In 1977, Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille, the husband and wife team widely known as Captain & Tennille, began building the studio at 20215 S ...

, Los Angeles, California * Produced by

* Engineered by Angelo Arcuri * Assistant engineered by Gary McGachan * Laser effects: LaserMedia Inc., Los Angeles, California * Laser operator: Michael Moorhead * Originally mastered by Greg Fulginiti at

Artisan Sound Recorders Artisan Sound Recorders was one of Southern California's premier disk mastering facilities. It was founded by Robert M. MacLeod Jr. in the 1960s, and acquired by Kent Duncan in 1979 when MacLeod retired. In the early 1990s, it was sold to Jon Lo ...

, Hollywood, California * Remastered by Andy Pearce (2012 Universal Deluxe Edition) * Mixed on Westlake Audio BBSM6 monitors * Illustration by Robert Florczak

Charts

Album

Singles

Rock 'n' Roll Children Hungry for Heaven

Certifications

References

External links

"Rock 'n' Roll Children" video clip

"Hungry for Heaven" video clip

{{Authority control 1985 albums Dio (band) albums Warner Records albums Vertigo Records albums es:Sagrado Corazón (desambiguación)#Sacred Heart