DIO - Lock Up The Wolves

About "Lock Up The Wolves"

Lock Up the Wolves is the fifth studio album by American heavy metal band Dio, released on May 15, 1990. It displayed a complete change of musician line-up over the previous album, Dream Evil, including 18-year-old guitarist Rowan Robertson and Simon Wright on drums who had played with AC/DC from 1983 to 1989 as well as bassist Teddy Cook who was in the band Hotshot that morphed into Danger Danger. Rod Simpkins from the Hollywood bands Riken and Jungle Alley also filled in on bass for several tour dates in 1990. Former Dio Bass player Jimmy Bain was not able to fill tour dates for Teddy Cook due to health concerns.

Ronnie James Dio stated that the reason for the change was that it became apparent that the former band members had "lost interest" when compared to Robertson who was the first member of the new line-up. Robertson states that he was playing with the original band for around ten months while the album was being written, Jimmy Bain and Claude Schnell were replaced "along the way" and Vinny Appice was in the band until two weeks before entering the studio to record the album. Vinny Appice confirms that he was there until the album was written and left because he felt "This is not Dio" with "all these young guys in the band".

The song "Evil on Queen Street" takes its title from a deli in Toronto which had a sandwich with that name—per Dio on Much Music in 1990.

Two videos were released from the album, for the songs "Hey Angel" and "Wild One".

Guitarist Rowan Robertson stated that two more songs were written and demoed for the album but left off at the decision of their manager Wendy Dio: "Hell Wouldn't Take Her" and "The River Between Us".The album marked a drop-off in Dio's popularity, charting lower than the previous four studio albums. Los Angeles Times stated in September 1990 that the album "died a quick death on the charts" and "half-empty houses are not uncommon" on the ongoing tour.