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Inspired by the Maiden vs. Priest poll of old.

I feel like Dio vs Priest is more apples to apples; Maiden kinda had a (very) little prog mixed in their stuff. Not a lot, just like somebody opened a door and some prog from the next room wafted into their sound.

Anyway, who wins?

Judas Priest is so much closer to my community and their music always makes me feel I belong *with them*. Plus, Painkiller kills.

Love both but it's Priest. Halford is the greatest rock vocalist.

I was about to give it to Priest, then I thought about Dio’s time in Sabbath. Last In Line and Holy Diver are solid chunks of rock, but I know I’ve listened to Screaming For Vengeance and Defenders of the Faith more.

I must abstain.

Boundaries need to be drawn because it is impossible to speak on Dio without mentioning his other bands - Rainbow, Sabbath...so is it strictly Dio? Either way I'm voting Dio. Probably doesn't help my case that my favorite Priest song is Before the Dawwwwwwwwn

Look out!

rsmurphy wrote: Tue Dec 30, 2025 10:02 pm Boundaries need to be drawn because it is impossible to speak on Dio without mentioning his other bands - Rainbow, Sabbath...so is it strictly Dio? Either way I'm voting Dio. Probably doesn't help my case that my favorite Priest song is Before the Dawwwwwwwwn

Look out!

Only Dio. I was not considering Rainbow and Sabbath in my creation of this dome.

When Dio ran as a functional band (the first 2 albums), they yielded triumphant results. When money pressures made Ronnie revert to the Ozzy business model, the albums suffered big time (though I do still like albums 4 and 6).

Priest had a lot of strong albums over multiple strong, influential eras. There's just much more great material.

Priest gets my vote.

Holy Diver* was the very first song I learned on guitar, but I vote Priest.

*O/T but does anyone remember that Sonic Highways series, the Foo FIghters going around to different studios and blabla? There was one episode where the song they were working on was the Holy Diver riff, verbatim, just in a different key. And Taylor (RIP) is like 'wow this is really different for us!". I'm watching that like "guys, that was kind of a cliche riff 30 years ago..."

Sad Wings of Destiny, Sin after Sin and Stained Class is a trifecta that is pretty hard to beat by any standard. Priest, no WF.

Priest of course; solo Dio has like 1.75 great albums to his name; Priest have like 6...